Colleen Hanabusa defeated Charles Djou to become Hawaii's First Congressional District representative.
But the D.C. that awaits the new representative is much different than the one a few days ago.
Change was certainly in the air across the country.
The house has gone from democrat to republican controlled, which caught Hawaii's senior Senator by surprise.
"But I was rather surprised with the outcome nationally. I expected the democrats to lose a little in the and the Senate, and the House. But not a wild turnover in the Congress. So it's going to be a great challenge when we get back to Washington," said Senator Dan Inouye.
What will the next two years hold in store? Representative elect Hanabusa says the ball is now in the Republican's court.
"Part of what looking at what happened across the nation is that we've heard it constantly that the republicans have been called the party of "no", or the politics of "no" and I think now everyone is going to be looking to 2012. So you can't just simply say no you are going to have produce as well," said Hanabusa.
2012 will be a Presidential election year, with even more on the line than this year.
"So I expect that there will probably be, on both sides a lot of maybe compromises and moving on, and I think that that's where the effectiveness is going to be seen," said Hanabusa.
All that national change didn't extend to Hawaii. The Hanabusa win unseated the Republican Djou, who had been in Washington since winning the special election this year.
"I'll have some difficult topics explaining to my colleagues how come we did so well, and they had problems. But there is something about Hawaii. It's always been been different," said Inouye.
Hanabusa said she is scheduled to travel to the nation's capitol in a few weeks for orientation.
