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But Djou came close to winning back the district in 2014 after Hanabusa left to unsuccessfully challenge appointed Sen. Brian Schatz in the primary. Major outside groups on both sides spent a serious amount of money on the contest, but Democratic state Rep. Mark Takai held on 52-48 in the midst of another GOP wave.
Takai announced in 2016 that his battle with pancreatic cancer would prevent him from running for reelection. Hanabusa, who earned Takai’s endorsement shortly before he died that summer, went on to win back her old seat with minimal opposition but left again in 2018 to launch an ultimately failed primary bid against Gov. David Ige. This time the primary winner was Case, who had no trouble in the general election that year or this one.
In contrast, the more rural 2nd District, which includes the remainder of Honolulu as well as Hawaii’s other islands (known locally as the “Neighbor Islands”), has been in Democratic hands for decades. Indeed, one of its former representatives is Case, who was elected there in a 2002 special election but gave up the seat four years later to wage an unsuccessful primary bid against Sen. Daniel Akaka.
This year, state Sen. Kai Kahele won the primary and general elections to replace Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left to run for president. Kahele had assembled a serious campaign operation to take on Gabbard, who spent months keeping local politicians guessing whether she’d seek reelection, so he had a major head start over potential primary foes when she finally decided to call it quits and no one of note bothered to challenge him.
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