Race for U.S. House District 1

HONOLULU (KHON2) – Ed Case has won the race for U.S. House District 1 over Ron Curtis on Election night.

According to the first printout:

Ed Case: 177,585 65.9%
Ron Curtis: 64,474 23.9%

Congressman Case previously represented Hawaii’s Second Congressional District from 2002 to 2007. He also served as a Hawai’i State Representative from 1994 to 2002 in various positions including Majority Leader.

Curtis has a decorated career as an engineer. He has had a successful 30 year career with the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation. Curtis’ final role of managing the operations and maintenance of NASA’s Koke’e Park Geophysical Observatory lasted over five years. Curtis retired in February 2016 to spend more time with is family on Kauai.

Curtis was also a nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2018.

The 1st district is located entirely on the island of Oahu. Areas include Makapu’u through Central Honolulu and Leeward to Mililani, Waipahu, Ewa, Kapolei and Ko Olina.

U.S. House District 2

Kai Kahele is heading to Congress after winning the race for U.S. House District 2 over Joe Akana Tuesday night.

Kahele expressed his post-election remarks on Wednesday in a live stream on his Facebook page.

According to the first printout:

Kai Kahele: 163,464 59.0%
Joe Akana: 76,083 27.5%

Senator Kahele was appointed to the Hawaii State Senate by Gov. David Ige in 2016 following the unexpected death of his father, the late Senator Gil Kahele. He was subsequently elected and re-elected in 2016 and 2018. Kahele currently serves as the Majority Floor Leader of the Hawaii State Senate and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Water and Land. Kahele is also the Vice Chairman of Hawaiian Affairs and a member of the Committees on Ways & Means, and Higher Education.

Akana served 10 years as an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S. Air Force. After his enlistment ended, he began a career in Sales & Marketing. Akana later moved to the financial arena and specialized in home mortgages and equity lines. Akana has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Hawaii Pacific University and a second Master’s Degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University. He is a retired project manager and analyst with the U.S. Government and currently President of Arete Management, Inc. Akana is also a business development coach for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs.

The incumbent is Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who was reelected in 2018. Gabbard later announced that she would run for President of the United States in 2020. Hawaii law allows candidates to run for Congress and the presidency.

In October 2019, Gabbard announced she would not seek reelection to focus on her presidential campaign.

The 2nd district includes rural and suburban Oahu. Those areas include Waimanalo, Kailua, Kaneohe, Kahuku, Makaha, Nanakuli, as well as encompassing all the other islands of Hawaii like Maui and Hawaii Island.

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