KAHULUI — On the night of the Nov. 3 general election, Kelly Takaya King was sitting at home watching a “blue wave” of Democratic candidates sweeping the nation.

Hours later, when she and five other progressive candidates won election and regained control of the Maui County Council, she couldn’t help but compare the two trends.

“It was so exciting. You know, it feels like the same thing on this level,” said King, who unseated incumbent Council Member Tom Cook in a rematch of last election’s tight South Maui race. 

The Maui County Council, which for the last two terms has been led by a moderate majority, is in for a shift as the progressive-majority council prepares to take office in January. Three of the more moderate council members are leaving after this term — Chair Alice Lee, who chose not to seek reelection; Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura, who lost her race for mayor; and Cook.

The incoming progressive council members include returning incumbents Gabe Johnson of Lāna‘i, Tamara Paltin of West Maui, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez of Moloka‘i and Shane Sinenci of East Maui, as well as newly elected members King, who formerly served three terms on the council, and Bobby Pahia, who won Sugimura’s Upcountry seat. 

All but Pahia were part of a progressive wave that swept over the council in the 2018 election and held the majority until the 2022 election. 

“It’s great that we have a super majority,” Pahia said as he relaxed at Wow-Wee Maui’s Kava Bar and Grill on election night alongside Rawlins-Fernandez, Sinenci and incoming council member Marvin Moniz. “I feel that with the super majority and with Mayor (Richard) Bissen winning the election, I think that we can really get some things done quickly, because we’ll have synergy.”

Other council members don’t see themselves in any political faction. Returning incumbents Kauanoe Batangan of Kahului and Nohe U‘u-Hodgins of Pā‘ia-Makawao-Ha‘ikū have both voted at times with the moderate majority, but Batangan considers himself an independent, and U‘u-Hodgins sees herself as more left-leaning than the council’s outgoing members but “maybe not as left as some of the people I work with.” Moniz, who was endorsed by Lee and won her Wailuku-Waihe‘e-Waikapū seat, said he “could be a swing vote.”

“I like to call myself ‘the nine’ because I’m part of the nine,” Moniz said. “We got to work together to make it work. I don’t really have a side. I like to be known as a guy in the middle, Malcolm in the middle.”

Rawlins-Fernandez said she sees the incoming council as a body of “nine independent thinkers,” and she’s excited to welcome the “fresh energy and fresh ideas” that the new members will bring.

“I know that the four of us often voted similarly in the last two terms, but there were many times when we also didn’t,” she said. “And I think that goes to show that we’re not necessarily a bloc. When we do align, it’s generally on the priorities of the community.”

While council members don’t run under parties, they have often fallen on the same sides during votes on high-profile issues, and both their supporters and political groups making endorsements have viewed them as separate factions. Council members like U‘u-Hodgins see it more as interparty differences in a left-leaning state. Even “moderates” like Lee and Sugimura have Democratic ties, with Lee running as a Democrat for Maui County mayor when the race was partisan in 1998, and Sugimura previously serving as a field representative for Hawai‘i Democratic U.S. Senators Daniel Akaka and Mazie Hirono.

“We are so blue that even our blues have factions,” U‘u-Hodgins said. “Some people are lighter blue and darker blue.”

The political divide was stark in January 2023 when the council took office with one seat vacant as Lee faced a legal challenge over her election. Split by a 4-4 vote, the council was unable to move forward on several issues during its first organizational meeting. When Lee’s win was confirmed and she returned to the council later that month, she was unanimously elected chair after a heated 15-hour meeting. 

Members on the moderate side landed leadership of some of the most powerful committees. Sugimura headed the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, Cook oversaw the Water and Infrastructure Committee and the late Council Member Tasha Kama took over the Housing and Land Use Committee. 

“I don’t want it to be like how it was when we lost the majority and (they) were like, ‘we’re taking everything,’” Paltin said. “I hope that we can come to an agreement that we put the best-suited people in the best-suited committees.”

The minority, however, learned how to work with what they had while out of power. Sometimes, that meant making a plea to the Bissen administration. For example, Sinenci remembers a Habitat for Humanity project in Hāna that lost funding and Bissen later agreed to include it in his county budget. 

“If we couldn’t pass anything at the council, we just went straight upstairs and worked with him,” Sinenci said. “And for us, it’s been a copacetic relationship.” 

It’s part of the reason the incoming council members are optimistic about working with Bissen. Rawlins-Fernandez, who supported Bissen’s reelection bid, said he took a political risk “that no mayor before him was willing to do” when he proposed a bill to phase out thousands of short-term rentals in hopes of creating more housing for local residents after the 2023 Lahaina and Upcountry wildfires. When he announced the measure in 2024, she stood behind him at the press conference.

After months of intense debate on both sides, the council passed Bill 9 by a 5-3 vote, with Johnson, Paltin, Rawlins-Fernandez, Sinenci and U‘u-Hodgins in favor, and Lee, Sugimura and Cook opposed.  

Both Rawlins-Fernandez and Paltin think the election showed that Bill 9 was popular with local voters. Neither Bissen nor any of the council members who supported it lost their races.

“If a bunch of us had gotten voted out that voted for Bill 9, I would say Bill 9 affected it,” Paltin said. “But maybe it affected it in our favor. … It makes me think that that’s what the resident voters wanted.” 

Rawlins-Fernandez, who ran unopposed, thinks “it was hyperlocalized issues that influenced the voters” in the council races rather than the nationwide blue wave. However, she did see a connection in that “big money did insert itself into our politics,” but “people power beat all that dark money.”

High-spending superPAC For a Better Tomorrow, which supported the campaigns of the moderate majority in the 2024 election, had mixed results this year after far outspending other superPACs and investing heavily in advertising for Sugimura’s mayoral bid as well as the reelection campaigns of Cook and Batangan, and for political newcomer Ashley Awakea Lindsey, who faced Moniz in the general. 

SuperPACs operate independently of candidates and cannot coordinate with their campaigns. 

The six progressive council members signed a pledge refusing to take campaign money from corporate political action committees and lobbyists, according to Our Hawai‘i PAC, which is also a registered superPAC. 

The same council members and Bissen were endorsed by the Maui Pono Network as Maui ‘Ohana candidates who would put people and the ‘āina over big money interests. The ‘Ohana Coalition also was a driving force behind the progressive slate in 2018.

“You used to be able to just look at the money that was spent and you could predict the outcome,” Johnson said. “Now, it’s changed. I’m so glad our electorate is waking up. It’s not the person who has the highest amount of funds in their campaign. It’s actually that people elect the candidates who are actually … listening to what the people are saying.”

While winners Batangan, Moniz, Pahia and U‘u-Hodgins led their opponents in fundraising, the South Maui race was an example of the disparity between funding and the outcome. Cook had raised $110,963 — the most of any council candidate — to King’s $24,421 over the entire election period as of Oct. 19, according to the latest available campaign spending reports.

“I’ve heard it put this way, which I love — the many versus the money — because there was so much money,” King said.

King, who narrowly lost to Cook by 97 votes in 2024 but won this time by 2,821 votes, thinks another key to her victory was Cook’s support for controversial projects like Honua‘ula, formerly known as Wailea 670, which has come under fire for reducing the number of affordable housing units developers initially promised. The council voted on a 5-4 split to approve changes to the project last year. King said she ran because “our community has been outvoted almost every time” and that South Maui voters were frustrated.

“I worked 10 times harder than I thought I was going to, and it was worth it, because we’re going to be able to move forward with what the people want in our communities,” King said. “And now that we’ve got a super majority, hopefully, we don’t have to worry about the vetoes or anything.”

Cook said he “was told repeatedly that my support and advocacy for that was a mistake politically.” But he said he’s not in the job to play politician. He has said previously that the project was an opportunity to provide more jobs and housing.

“The word progressive annoys me,” Cooks said. “If we were progressive, we’d be developing water and homes.” He considers himself a “moderate-liberal.”

“I’m surprised at how the ‘Ohana Coalition has grown over the years, and this election demonstrated — with the mayor being on their ballot and them getting the majority of who they wanted — their political power,” said Cook, who spent election night at Sugimura’s headquarters watch party along with Lee.

He said he could have gone after King more on the campaign trail but that he didn’t want to be “pilau” (rotten) and preferred to focus on making a case for himself. As he prepares to depart the council, Cook said, “I’m humbled and grateful for the people that supported me and the fact that they believe that my life experiences and expertise is something that the council needed.”

With a progressive majority moving forward, multiple council members said they believe the body can now move quickly on its priorities.

Sinenci says everyone on the council has their own niche. Coming from a region rife with critical streams, he’s interested in water issues.  

Paltin, whose district includes Lahaina, says the recovery from the 2023 wildfire will be one of her top priorities.

Rawlins-Fernandez said she wants to focus on “land back” and “water back” initiatives as well as food and energy sovereignty.

Moniz wants to comb through staffing and budgeting challenges with each county department to try and make operations more efficient. 

Pahia said he’s prioritizing ‘āina and community, and creating more civic engagement and opportunities for the next generation. 

King is interested in issues like affordable housing, preserving the environment, and mitigating climate disasters.

Johnson said he will be focused on advancing the county’s efforts to take over the Lāna‘i ferry, as well as affordable housing on his island.

Batangan, who was appointed by Bissen to take Kama’s place after her death in October 2025, wants to tackle bills he is carrying on from Kama’s time, including a measure to “incentivize people benefiting from the long-term rental tax break to pass those savings on to the rentees.”

Batangan said that when he joined the council in January of this year, he didn’t find it to be “as polarized as the media makes it out to be.”

“I think that we actually agreed on a lot more than is often reported or often discussed online,” he said. “I’m confident that we can figure out a way to work together. I actually see myself as pretty independent. It’s less about who’s making the arguments and how persuasive the argument is.”

Examples of council members voting unanimously or switching sides on key measures include the 9-0 approval of the county’s plans for a safe parking site for unsheltered residents in October, the 7-2 backing of a bill in June to allow some vacation rentals affected by Bill 9 to be rezoned as hotels (Paltin and Sinenci joined the majority in support), the 9-0 passage of a bill in March 2025 to allow property owners in the burn zone to rebuild with original conditions, and the 6-3 vote in May 2024 to put up to $15 million toward helping the Pulelehua development in West Maui move forward (Lee and Cook joined the progressives).

U‘u-Hodgins, who said housing and homelessness will be two of her top issues, feels the current council members have “done a pretty good job fostering our personal relationships that extend beyond just our professional relationships,” and she hopes that will continue on the new council. 

It’s unclear how long the current council makeup will last as Paltin, Rawlins-Fernandez and Sinenci are all approaching their fifth council term. Technically, because the charter amendment limiting council members to five full two-year terms passed while they were in office in 2020, their prior service did not count against them. 

Sinenci said declining to run again would “follow the spirit” of the law. However, all three do have the option and said they would decide after this next term.

“I’d really like to take it one year at a time,” Paltin said.