Hawaii 2010 Election Results

Hawaii held its general election on November 2, 2010, deciding 66 legislative seats and 2 statewide offices led by the governorship. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Democrats won back the governorship after eight years of Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, giving the party control of the governor's office to go with its lopsided majorities in the Legislature.
• Former congressman Neil Abercrombie (D) beat Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona (R) by about 17 points, running on a message of change. Lingle had been the state's first Republican governor in four decades when she was elected in 2002. Abercrombie's running mate, Brian Schatz (D), became lieutenant governor over House Minority Leader Lynn Finnegan (R).
• Republicans gained two House seats but dropped to one Senate seat, leaving the Legislature the nation's most one-sided.
• In all, 3 legislative seats changed party:
  • George Fontaine (R) unseated Rep. Joe Bertram III (D) by fewer than 200 votes in South Maui's House District 11.
  • Gil Riviere (R) won the open House District 46 by about 780 votes.
  • In the lone Democratic gain, Pohai Ryan (D) won the open Senate District 25 seat that Republican Fred Hemmings gave up.
  Separately, the closest race in the state was in House District 38, where Rep. Marilyn B. Lee (D) held on by 16 votes over Shaun Hayato Kawakami (R) after trailing in early counts.
• Voters approved both constitutional amendments. Question 1 replaced the elected Board of Education with one appointed by the governor; the next spring Abercrombie named the board, the first gubernatorial appointments to it in more than 40 years. Question 2 let the Legislature deposit surplus revenue into reserve funds instead of returning it as a tax refund or credit.

Legislature

• House (51 seats): 45 D, 6 R before the election, 43 D, 8 R after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (25 seats): 23 D, 2 R before the election, 24 D, 1 R after; control stayed with Democrats.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures