Hawaii elections 2026 begins Tuesday with Republicans trying to build on their 2024 gains in the state Legislature. Results are expected Tuesday evening after the last person in line at voter service centers has cast a ballot.
Republicans hold 10 out of 51 seats in the House and three out of 25 seats in the Senate. Colin Moore, a University of Hawaiʻi political science professor, said the party is likely to lose ground in the islands because Donald Trump is not on the ballot.
Office of Elections and Tuesday
The Office of Elections said anyone in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote. Hawaiʻi uses vote-by-mail, so many voters already mailed ballots or dropped them in a ballot box before Election Day, which means the first counts on Tuesday evening may reflect a large share of the electorate before the day is over.
Moore said ballot returns have so far been lower than the last mid-term in 2022. He also said many races were effectively settled during the primary, narrowing the number of contests that could still change the balance in the state House and Senate in.
West Maui race
One race drawing unusual attention is in West Maui, where an unusual three-way contest could send the first Green Party candidate to the state House. Elle Cochran, the Republican incumbent, was last elected as a Democrat before switching parties in March.
Cochran missed 51 out of the last legislative session's 60 days and said, "I was needed more in my district helping Lahaina fire survivors than in the Capitol." Sne Patel is the Democratic candidate in West Maui, while Paʻele Kiakona is running for the Green Party.
Kiakona is a leader of Lahaina Strong, which led protests for housing after the 2023 Maui wildfires. He has also won major union endorsements from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.
Hawaiʻi Legislature results
The last time a third-party lawmaker served in the Legislature was in 1904. That makes the West Maui contest one of the few races with the potential to change not just the partisan count, but the lineup in a chamber where Republicans picked up three seats in the state House and one seat in the Senate in 2024.
Key Senate contests are in Mililani, Waipahu and ʻEwa Beach. Key House contests are in Hawaiʻi Kai, Moanalua and Oʻahu's North Shore, and the votes in those places will determine whether Republicans stop at their current foothold or add to it.
The count will start Tuesday evening, but the broader test is immediate: whether the GOP can turn a modest 2024 gain into more seats in a Legislature still dominated by the Democratic Party.
