Hawai'i U.S. Senate- Race of the Day

85 Days Until Election Day

Hawai'i U.S. Senate

Status: Democrat Incumbent
2016 Presidential Result: Blue State (West)

Outlook: Safe Democrat

In 2012, the Japanese born Democrat Mazie Hirono became the first Asian-American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. She is also the first Buddhist ever to serve in the upper chamber.  A reliably liberal vote, her first term has been relatively low profile, after a long career in Hawai'i politics and then the U.S. House. She is seeking reelection despite announcing last year that she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer. She had a surgical procedure to remove her kidney, and as she approaches age 71, there is not much talk about her health situation being dire.

Hawai'i has always been a strong Democrat state and the past decade has seen it move overwhelmingly so in that direction. She is likely to win this year by the largest margin of any U.S. Senate candidate. This past Saturday, a primary was held, and eight Republicans competed for the right to lose to Hirono. Needless to say, most in the state were more interested in the Gubernatorial primary or one for an open U.S. House seat.


Six thousand plus votes though was enough to clinch the GOP nomination for retired computer engineer Ron Curtis. He says he would donate his Senate salary to charity and based on his campaign website, does not seem to be spending a whole lot of money on that either. Curtis received 19.5 percent of the vote, and 18 percent of primary voters left their ballot blank. His nearest competitor at 16 percent of the vote was educator and businesswoman Consuelo Anderson, whom if she had won, would have likely been the only African-American Republican woman nominated for the Senate this year.

Ron Curtis has the sort of name that sounds like a tv anchorman and it also looks like he would have the hair for that job, or for looking "Senatorial", but in Hawai'i, it's simply not in the cards.

U.S. Senate races predicted thus far: 5 D (3 Safe, 1 Likely, 1 Tossup), 1 R (1 Tossup)

Total with predictions thus far:
28 D (23 holdovers, 3 Safe, 1 Likely, 1 Tossup), 43 R (42 holdovers, 1 Tossup)