Hawaii’s Democratic, Republican parties gear up for March presidential caucuses
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii’s Democratic and Republican parties will be hosting presidential caucuses in March.
The state’s Democratic party is hosting its caucus on March 6 and will also be electing its delegates to the state convention in May.
Among the five candidates, President Joe Biden is expected to easily win all the state’s Democratic delegates. Interim Party Chair Adrian Tam urges members to get involved and share their concerns.
“We really try to hone in on a lot of the issues that come in, and we try to understand what the community wants, and we do our best to represent them and fight for them,” Tam said.
Tam said party leaders are listening to the community, honing in on issues and making it their priority to represent and fight for members. Some of the biggest issues include homelessness, mental health funding, affordable housing, women’s right to choose, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Meanwhile, the Hawaiian Republican Party says a state bill that aims to remove former president Donald Trump from the ballot has not distracted the group’s work ahead of its presidential caucus on March 12.
“It was nice to see that the Democratic Party also had the same opinion, the Democratic Party has the freedom as a political party as we do to choose our own candidates for our party. For the state to go and put its fingers further inside of what the party and the people want is overstepping, overreach,” said Chair Tamara McKay.
She says the party is focused on empowering conservative voters and keeping Trump an option for Hawaii’s 19 GOP convention delegates.
About 15,000 voters took part in the last Hawaii GOP caucus in 2016.
McKay hopes to double that amount this year and boost grassroots involvement.
The party is encouraging counties and the districts to organize town halls, stating a lot of people have hard questions that they want answered.
“The base doesn’t feel that they were ever heard so it’s focusing on the bottom-up versus top-down which is the voters and their voice going from the grassroots effort,” McKay said.
In 2020, the party canceled its caucus due to the pandemic and because Donald Trump was the only candidate.
This time, most of the eight candidates who signed up last fall have dropped out — with Trump the clear frontrunner.
Both Tam and McKay say their focus is on empowering voters in a critical election year.
“We’re working really hard to change our image and really listen to the people. We’re encouraging and looking for great leadership, get off the couch and start running and be the voice for your communities,” McKay said.
For more information on Hawaii’s Democratic party, visit hawaiidemocrats.org.
For more information on Hawaii’s GOP party, visit thehawaiirepublicanparty.com.
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