The 2024 General Election may have seemed like a typical, low-key local affair, but it delivered a few surprises that weren’t exactly on anyone’s radar before November 5. While we saw Trump making some unexpected strides in the suburbs, county council races revealed a lot of voters opting for “none of the above”—by just skipping those races entirely. It wasn’t a dramatic election, but there were some intriguing moments. Let’s dig into a few of the things that caught my eye as a humble political blogger.
Most people voted and made a choice
PC: “2017 None of the Above Party 16 x 24 sign artwork” by Greg Vezina is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The statewide results for the General Election reveal that most voters made a choice rather than leaving their ballots blank. Across 60 races—spanning national, state, and county offices—the average percentage of blank ballots was just 6.33%. As highlighted in a previous Politics Hawaii article, candidates often face not only their direct competitors but also the challenge of the “blank vote” candidate.
However, when we look more closely at specific races, the “blank vote” had a notable impact on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), which isn’t surprising, as well as on neighbor island county council races—a more unexpected trend.
For non-O‘ahu races for county seats, (including Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii counties), the average blank vote was significantly higher, at 28.38%. This suggests that neighbor island races may provoke more voter apathy, warranting further investigation into why that might be.
In contrast, the presidential race saw a much lower rate of blank votes, with only 1% of ballots left unfilled
Flipping District 32 House was not on the dance card.
One race that flew under the radar for many observers and pundits was House District 32 – which covers Āliamanu, Salt Lake, and Foster Village. While some, like this humble blogger, saw it as a tough seat to flip, the district’s proximity to military bases and a population that could sway votes either way kept it in play.
The outcome on November 5, though, overturned that assumption. Garner Shimizu, the Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent Micah Aiu, not only defeated Aiu but also flipped the seat to the GOP. Given the district’s distant history of Republican representation, with figures like Lynn Finnegan and Aaron Ling Johanson, the return of the seat to Republican control suggests it may remain competitive between the parties in the years to come.
PC: “Bob McDermott” by ThinkTech Hawaii is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
So also, was District 40 – another flip
When Bob McDermott chose to run for Congress and leave his very safe seat in District 40 – Ewa, Ewa Beach, Ewa Gentry, Iroquois Point – a ready-to-serve person was right there to win the seat when it opened, Democrat Rose Martinez. At the time, because of her tenacious spirit to run against McDermott for several elections, her finally winning showed the reward for such tenacity.
It only lasted one election cycle. As with District 32 where the seat has gone back and forth, it once again flipped to the Republicans in which Julie Reyes-Oda beat out Martinez. This win was part of a net-add to the Republican caucus in the House and returned the district to Republican control.
Win by the hair of his chinny chin chin
By 7:10 p.m. on November 12, the final results for House District 39 (Royal Kunia, Village Park, Waipahu, Makakilo, West Loch) were in. Incumbent Republican Elijah Pierick narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Corey Rosenlee by just 11 votes. The race had been tight throughout, with Rosenlee briefly ahead in two of the earlier counts, only for Pierick to pull ahead by 22 votes in the third report. Once “cured” ballots were tallied, his lead was trimmed down to a razor-thin margin.
Despite Pierick’s history of controversy – his protest against the flying of the LGBTQIA+ pride flag at Ewa Makai Middle School, which Politics Hawaii covered—his constituents ultimately decided by a slim margin that they preferred him to Rosenlee. In other words, it seems just a bit more of his district wanted him to stay than to throw him out.
Trump does better in the ‘burbs
PC: “Donald Trump – Caricature” by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
With reporting done by Civil Beat, and affirmed through research done by data analyst Jared Kuroiwa, the results of the presidential election in Hawai‘i showed growth of Trump’s support in the western and northern suburbs of Honolulu Unlike in 2020, where support for Trump was patchy in the ‘Ewa plain and Wai‘anae, this time around the entire west side of O‘ahu, from Mākaha in the north to West Waipahu in the south of the island, the voters came out for Trump in bigger numbers than they did for Harris. Even in sections like Royal Kunia and Village Park, the margin of Harris over Trump was 52% for her, 47% for him. As mentioned in Politics Hawai‘i back in 2022, when more Republicans in the area won seats at the Legislature, it seems that those wins had coattails for the presidential election two years later.
Other stronghold areas of O‘ahu, including the Lā‘ie and Kahuku, kept their loyalty to a Republican presidential candidate. The vast majority of the urban core, including Pearl City and East Waipahu, though, are Democratic support areas, with all other islands except for Ni‘ihau going for Harris.
If you are interested in finding out the results of the election, in which the final results are posted, navigate over to the State of Hawaii Office of Elections.
Politics Hawaii with Stan Fichtman is a recipient of a 2023 Hawaii Society of Professional Journalist award.