{"id":2717,"date":"2026-07-17T10:06:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:06:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:06:01","slug":"texas-billionaire-money-flows-into-waikiki-democratic-primary-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2717","title":{"rendered":"Texas billionaire money flows into Waikiki Democratic primary race"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<section>\n<p>HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) \u2014 A Texas oil billionaire is pouring money into a Democratic primary race in Waikiki \u2014 but the money isn\u2019t going toward a Republican. It\u2019s supporting a newcomer trying to unseat an incumbent.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2715\">Hawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the Democratic primary for House District 24, covering Waikiki, McCully and Moiliili, challenger Bulla Eastman is facing incumbent Rep. Adrian Tam. Eastman received a sudden wave of support from Texas billionaire Douglas Scharbauer, who also owns thoroughbred racehorses.<\/p>\n<p>Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission documents show Scharbauer and the Patriot Action Political Action Committee spent $30,000 on ads supporting Eastman at a local media outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Tam questioned the mainland money.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cHe has supported candidates like Ken Paxton and Donald Trump. He has supported politicians that have tried to roll back environmental regulations, who have tried to limit a woman\u2019s access to reproductive health care, and have tried to roll back policies advancing rights for LGBT folks,\u201d said Tam, who is openly gay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m curious as to why this super PAC with conservative right-wing ties is supporting someone in the Democratic primary,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Eastman told Hawaii News Now he does not know Scharbauer, but is grateful for the surprise support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, wow, this is kind of interesting,\u201d Eastman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing because you have a very successful businessman in the mainland who\u2019s taken quite an interest here in this race, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s so much for supporting me as it is he\u2019s trying to get the incumbent out of office,\u201d Eastman said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2713\">First Alert Forecast: Trade winds continue into the weekend and keeping an eye on hurricane swells next week<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s interesting for me because it\u2019s a Republican supporting a Democrat running against a Democrat,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<h2>Questions about party loyalty<\/h2>\n<p>Tam questioned whether Eastman is truly a Democrat. Eastman told Hawaii News Now he voted for Trump \u2014 though he said he cannot remember which election \u2014 and considers himself a conservative Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy parents are Democrats. My wife\u2019s parents are Democrats, because the party is for the people,\u201d Eastman said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI think that if you\u2019re going to run for office, you should be very authentic and upfront about who you are and what you represent,\u201d Tam said.<\/p>\n<h2>About the candidates<\/h2>\n<p>Tam was first elected in 2020. He said his accomplishments include making the district a better place, combatting noise and climate change, and working to improve safety.<\/p>\n<p>Eastman is a first-time candidate who runs a security consulting firm and is an ordained minister doing outreach on streets and in prisons. He said he wants to make Waikiki a safer place.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2711\">Deep-sea mining plan off American Samoa draws criticism<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Texas oil billionaire is pouring money into a Democratic primary race in Waikiki \u2014 but the money isn\u2019t going toward a Republican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Texas billionaire money flows into Waikiki Democratic primary race - Hawaii Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2717\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas billionaire money flows into Waikiki Democratic primary race - 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