One of the more interesting side stories that emerged from Hawaiʻi’s 2026 Primary Election was the number of former elected officials who decided they wanted back in.
At first glance, this blogger counted four familiar names — people who had held elected office before and were now asking voters to give them another shot.
But after digging a little deeper into the candidate list, four became 11.
And these weren’t all former legislators looking to get back into the State Capitol. The comeback attempts stretched from the State House and Senate to county councils and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Which brings up an interesting question before we get into who ran and how they did: Why would someone who has already served in elected office want to get back in?
There probably isn’t one answer to that question.
For some, it may simply be unfinished business. You spend years in the office working on issues, building relationships, and learning how government actually works, and then suddenly you are on the outside looking in.
For others, after having a seat at the table, they may realize they still want to be part of the conversation. There is also the simple fact that former officeholders aren’t necessarily starting from scratch. They have a name people recognize, supporters who voted for them before, relationships they built while in office, and, perhaps most importantly, the experience of having actually won an election.
There is also the fact that some of the veterans who ran in this primary still had money in the bank and may have figured that, with a proper effort and those resources, they could get back in.
Whether it was to satisfy the political bug that some politicians get after first serving, unfinished business, or simply someone asking them to run again, the fact that so many former officeholders decided to give elected office another shot in 2026 is worth taking a look at.
One quick note on who we are counting as a “comeback.” There were other former officeholders on the ballot this year, but for this article, we are looking at those who were actually out of elected office and decided they wanted back in.
That means people like former Kauaʻi Mayor Bernard Carvalho and Mel Rapozo don’t make this particular list. Both may have been looking for another office, but neither was really making a comeback — they were already serving on the Kauaʻi County Council when they decided to run.
So who ran, and how did they do? To give it more context, weʻll batch them into categories.
In the “I want my old seat back” category, there are five candidates.
- John Mizuno — House District 29
He left the House in 2024 to work for the Governor’s Office and decided to come back two years later, seeking his former seat, now held by Ikaika Hussey. - Trevor Ozawa — Honolulu City Council District 4
Taking another shot at the seat, he went up against current Councilmember Tommy Waters and also filed suit challenging Waters’ eligibility to run for another term. - Eileen O’Hara — Hawaiʻi County Council District 4
A former Hawaiʻi County Council member who previously represented the district. - Guy Enriques — Hawaiʻi County Council District 6
Enriques previously served one term on the Hawaiʻi County Council in 2008 and ran again in 2026 for District 6, covering Kaʻū and portions of South Kona. - Brendon Kaleiʻāina Lee — OHA At-Large
Lee previously served as an OHA at-large trustee and attempted to return to the same board.
Four more candidates are categorized as “Back to the Legislature.” They were not trying to reclaim their exact old districts, but they had previously been legislators and wanted back into the building.
- Michael Kahikina — House District 44
A former House member and Housing Committee chair, Kahikina’s legislative career ended in 2006 when Republican Karen Awana defeated him for the District 44 seat. - Lei Ahu Isa — Senate District 13
A former House member who subsequently served in other elected positions (OHA) and made a bid to return to the Legislature, this time as a state senator. - Bob McDermott — Senate District 20
A former House member seeking a return to the Legislature through the Senate. - Rida Cabanilla Arakawa — Senate District 20
Another former House member seeking a Senate seat, this time making her attempt as a member of a different political party, switching from the Democrats to the Republicans.
For this group, apparently once you’ve spent enough time walking the halls of the State Capitol, sometimes you decide you want your parking space back.
PC: Tracy Wright-Corvo, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In the third and fourth categories, there is one candidate in each.
Ikaika Anderson, former Honolulu City Councilmember and former City Council Chair, who last ran as Lieutenant Governor against Sylvia Luke and Keith Amemiya in 2022, put his name into the burgeoning list of Office of Hawaiian Affairs At-Large candidates. He is in the category of “A different seat at the table”; his candidacy asks whether political skills learned in one body can be transferred to another elected position.
And in the final category of “You Can’t Keep a Politician Down,” we go to Kauai where Billy DeCosta, who lost his council seat in 2024, has chosen to run again, asking the voters, “you really sure that you didnʻt want me?” Because Kauaʻi elects its seven councilmembers at-large, his ask may have been even more impassioned… do you reaaaaaaly not like me?
So, did these efforts turn into a “veterans wave” whose names we will see on the General Election ballot in November?
Well, not quite. Here is a snapshot of each of the candidates and the official outcome of the vote.
The results show that the veterans running for county council seats were all successful in making it through the primary — so DeCosta may get a “yeah, we like you” answer in the General.
PC: ThinkTech Hawaii, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
OHA looks like a 50/50 split, with Lee losing but Anderson being one of the six candidates to advance for the three at-large OHA seats.
As for legislative (State House/Senate) races, the outcomes look less optimistic. Bob McDermott was the lone veteran to survive, but just barely. After tying incumbent Kurt Fevella at 1,212 votes apiece, McDermott won the August 15 drawing by lot and will advance to the General Election. All the other legislative veterans lost.
With the losses, there was considerable variation in how the legislative veterans performed. Mizuno came within 37 votes of taking back his old seat, while Kahikina received only about 11 percent of the vote against incumbent Darius Kila. Cabanilla Arakawa, who jumped into the Senate District 20 Republican primary, also finished well behind both McDermott and incumbent Kurt Fevella.
So, what happened?
One theory offered to this blogger was that some of these candidates campaigned like it was still 1990 — that having a familiar name, having served before, and reminding people of what you did while in office would be enough to get you elected again.
That obviously didn’t work.
Another theory had to do with messaging. What worked five, 10, or even 20 years ago may not work today. Voters change, campaigning changes, and the people now holding those seats have had time to build political bases of their own.
Still, being a veteran counted for something. Mizuno came within 37 votes of getting his old job back; McDermott fought an incumbent senator to a tie and, through the luck of the draw, made it through to November.
Perhaps that is the lesson from the comeback class of 2026. Having won before may help, but it isn’t enough by itself. You still have to give voters a reason to vote for you today, rather than reminding them why they voted for you years ago.
And for those who didn’t make it this time? Considering this whole article is about politicians trying to come back, I wouldn’t necessarily count on them staying gone.