HONOLULU — Hawaii Democrats on Saturday renominated Gov. Josh Green for a second term and returned Rep. Ed Case to the November ballot in the 1st Congressional District, while Republicans picked contractor Gary Cordery to challenge Green in a state that has not had a Republican governor since 2010.

The results leave the state’s dominant party in place heading into the fall and set up a general election in which Cordery, who defeated business owner Ken Fujiyama in the Republican primary, will face an incumbent who has raised more than 10 times as much money and holds a 56 percent approval rating. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the gubernatorial race Solid Democratic, with a Partisan Voting Index of D+13.

Case holds his seat

Case led state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole by nearly 14 points with 91 percent of the vote counted, CBS News reported, defying what the network called "a recent trend of progressive challengers ousting moderate incumbents." Keohokalole had criticized Case for voting to send military aid to Israel and for supporting an earlier version of President Trump’s SAVE America Act; Case, one of just three House Democrats to back that bill, told Hawaii News Now he did not support the latest version. He will face Republican Adriel Lam, who was unopposed, in November.

Green’s cash edge

Green, first elected in 2022, has raised approximately $3.5 million, compared with about $313,000 for Cordery, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. None of Green’s three primary challengers had raised any money as of June 30, Civil Beat reported. "His policies have been fairly popular, there hasn’t been anything he’s done that’s really created a pushback," John Hart, a communication professor at Hawaii Pacific University, told Civil Beat.

Green has pointed to his administration’s response to the 2023 Lahaina wildfire, which killed 102 people, and to March flooding from Kona low storms that caused more than $1 billion in damage.

The Republican pitch

Cordery is running on lowering the cost of living, reforming education and rooting out corruption. His platform calls for adding 15,000 homes across the islands priced roughly $400,000 to $600,000, using state-owned land for fee-simple housing and streamlining permitting. He would eliminate the state’s General Excise Tax on food and medicine and freeze property taxes for homeowners at retirement.

Cordery told Civil Beat, "Hawai’i’s 20.5 billion dollar budget for 1.4 mil[lion] people is a staggering number." He added, "I believe our tax burden is out of control. The answer is management."

Cordery’s opening

The Republican challenger has material to work with. Fox News reported that Hawaii’s Democratic lieutenant governor was indicted in a state corruption investigation, and Cordery’s platform contrasts Hawaii’s roughly $20.5 billion budget with New Hampshire’s $7.75 billion budget for a population of the same size. Still, no candidate with strong Democratic name recognition chose to challenge Green in the primary, as several did in 2022. "It just didn’t create a scenario in which another Democrat thought it made sense to run against us," Green told Civil Beat.

Hawaii’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.