Hawaii Democratic Party convention underway in Waikiki

News admin May 30, 2026 0 Comments

Hawaii Democratic Party convention underway in Waikiki

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Democratic Party of Hawaii is holding its state convention in Waikiki over the next two days.

More than 400 party members and advocates are meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village to elect a new party chair and set up their platform of issues for the next legislative sessions.

While critics say the party has lost focus and its mojo, local leaders say that’s not the case and are hopeful heading into the midterm elections.

“I’m very confident we’re going to flip the U.S. House of Representatives. I’m also confident that we’re going to flip the U.S. Senate because we’ve been organizing, we’ve been out there, and we have the energy on our side,” said Derek Turbin, current chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.

“In D.C., they’ve made some tremendous missteps, sending us to war in the Middle East, rising gas prices, and we’re going to take aggressive actions as Democrats here in Hawaii to lower the cost of gas and lower the cost of living moving forward,” he added.

Friday’s sessions focused on educating and training candidates and advocates young and old. Participants also discussed issues they say have been threatened by the federal government, from universal access to voting to women’s reproductive rights to LGBTQ plus rights.

“It’s so important to make sure that young people have a space for advocacy and know that we can change our lives just by being there and showing up to make sure we can change these different laws, to change these policies and to make sure we can have a more progressive future,” said Isabelle Enriques, national vice chair of the High School Democrats of America.

“We want to make sure that our local level candidates are empowered with the best tools, knowledge, and get some practice in going door to door, you know, setting up events and really reaching voters,” said Honolulu City Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, a former party chair.

Another priority: strengthening ties with the federal government amid funding cuts and two lawsuits involving preferential treatment at Kamehameha Schools and over Papa Ola Lokahi’s Health Scholarship Program.

“That will withstand legal challenges if if a court case was ever to go up to the U.S. Supreme Court on equal protection grounds, because with a government-to-government relationship, we would definitively be a political group as opposed to a racial group,” said Honolulu City Council member Esther Kiaʻāina, former assistant secretary for insular areas at the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Obama administration.

“We need kokua by everyone in the state of Hawaii to rally behind Native Hawaiians as we stand this onslaught of constitutional attacks against Native Hawaiian programs,” she said.

The convention continues Saturday with Gov. Josh Green, Sen. Brian Schatz, and 2024 vice president nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz among the keynote speakers.