Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ incumbent trustees retain seats in 2024 election

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from candidates following the release of election results.

Three seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ board of trustees were on the ballot this Election Day. All three were retained by incumbent candidates, each of whom bested challengers by comfortable margins.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a semi-autonomous state agency created in 1978 to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians, is made up of nine elected officials who serve four-year terms.

Incumbent Kaua‘i trustee Dan Ahuna on Wednesday thanked his constituents for their votes.

“I am deeply humbled by your support and extend my sincerest gratitude,” he said. “I will continue to do all that I can for our beneficiaries to help ensure the perpetuation of our people for the next generations.”

Keli‘i Akina has served the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as an at-large trustee since 2016. He also thanked voters for their support, as well as his opponent, Lei Ahu Isa, for her years of public service.

Akina, president and CEO of conservative think tank Grassroot Institute of Hawai‘i, has campaigned on a platform prioritizing financial accountability within the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The greatest challenge now facing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is the economic empowerment of the Hawaiian people, according to Akina.

“People should be able to earn a decent living and purchase a decent home,” he said Wednesday. “Otherwise we’ll continue to see our children, as well as the older generation, move away from Hawai‘i.”

Five seats represent the islands of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, O‘ahu, Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i, and Hawai‘i Island. The remaining four seats are at-large positions.

Three seats were on the ballot in this year’s general election on Nov. 5. Hawai‘i Island trustee Kai Kahele won his election outright with 56.7% of the vote in the August primary.

Office of Hawaiian Affairs campaigns are nonpartisan.

Incumbent Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau trustee Dan Ahuna, a youth sports coach and educator who has held his seat since 2012, on Election Day defeated Laura A. Lindsey, a political newcomer and reported employee of the Kauaʻi County Department of Finance.

Ahuna received 134,814 votes (30%) statewide, while Lindsey pulled in 106,418 votes (23.7%). Most Hawai‘i voters did not cast a ballot in their race, nor any other Office of Hawaiian Affairs contest year.

Insurance agent Luana Alapa, who has represented Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i on the board of trustees since 2020, also retained her seat in this year’s election. She received 145,689 votes (32.5%) while her opponent, former police officer and Moloka‘i resident R. Kunani Nihipali, received 98,462 votes (21.9%).

At-large trustee Akina received 170,345 votes (38%) to best challenger Ahu Isa, a former trustee who has also served on the Board of Education and the state House of Representatives. Ahu Isa received 109,053 votes (24.3%).

Ahuna and Lindsey on Kaua‘i ran notably small campaigns. Ahuna received no contributions and intended to spend no more than $1,500 on his race, according to Hawai‘i Campaign Spending Commission data. Lindsey raised $2,100 in her unsuccessful bid to unseat him.

Ahuna last month told Hawai‘i Public Radio the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ role in developing its land in Kaka‘ako Makai on O‘ahu is a pressing issue.

“We can’t even make decisions on our own land,” Ahuna said in a Hawai‘i Public Radio story published Oct. 28. “Legislation won’t even allow us to give us the permits to do the things that we want to do.”

Lindsey’s campaign website does not include specific policy goals. It states Lindsey would “triage our community’s needs, identify the critical issues, and apply the necessary solutions” if she had been elected.

Incumbent Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i trustee Alapa on her campaign website promised to spearhead efforts addressing mental health services, home repairs and the public land trust.

“An economic realignment” and greater public awareness would overcome historic and cultural “dislocations and disenfranchisement,” her challenger Nihipali’s official campaign platform reads.

At-large trustee Akina’s opponent Ahu Isa had told Hawai‘i Public Radio she ran because outgoing trustee Mililani Trask asked her to.

“I have history. So people know me … If they don’t want me back in there, that’s fine,” Ahu Isa told the news outlet in early October.