AAPI Vote 2018: After the dust settled, Hawaii voters stuck with familiar faces

Hawaii Gov. David Ige thanks his suppporters for the vote of confidence.

HAWAII VOTERS opted for the familiar based on last Saturday's primary election.

They decided to keep incumbent David Ige as the Democratic nominee for governor, who had to beat back strong challenges from Rep. Colleen Hanbusa. 

Hanabusa gave up her Congressional seat for District 1 in order to campaign for governor leaving a void that attracted a whole host of hopefuls. In the end, voters picked Ed Case, who used to be the congressional representative for District 2.

Meanwhile, voters decided to keep Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as the Democratic nominee despite being pilloried by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Progressive challengers didn't fare well in deep blue Hawaii. Endorsements from progressive candidate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez from New York failed to cross the Pacific in behalf of state Rep. Kaniela Ing, who hoped to generate a wave of grass-roots excitement for an upset win. 

In a tweet after it was clear that an upset was not in the cards for Ing, he wrote, "Campaigns end, but movements don’t we won’t stop the #FightForAloha"

But Case, who describes himself as a moderate Democrat, won with 40% of the vote, followed by Lt. Gov. Doug Chin, who was instrumental in challenging Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban, and state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim. Kaniela Kim finished a distant 4th with only 6% of the vote.

Hawaii is so deeply Democratic, that the nominee for the Democratic Party in any of the races is expected to win in November.
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