火奴鲁鲁——凯·卡赫勒准备做一件不可思议的事情:从他自己的政党中选一名现任者为美国众议院议员。
他强烈地感觉到夏威夷众议员图尔西·加巴德(Tulsi Gabbard)早些时候宣布，他将挑战他的民主党同僚，这让居民们受到了伤害。
然后，就在卡赫勒参加竞选几个月后，加巴德宣布她不会寻求连任她自2013年以来一直占据的众议院席位，而是将注意力集中在她的白宫竞选上。
卡赫勒的大胆举动为他在周六的民主党初选中轻松获胜铺平了道路夏威夷美国第二国会选区。
46岁的他说，自从2019年1月发起他的竞选以来，这是一个漫长的旅程，能够走到这一步是令人兴奋的。
卡赫勒在一次采访中说:“我期待着再次踏上竞选征程，向将军进军。”
卡赫勒比他的竞争对手有如此大的优势，以至于他在过去的四个月里都在美国服现役夏威夷国民警卫队帮助国家应对冠状病毒大流行。在此期间，他无法开展任何竞选活动。
“有时候这很有挑战性，因为我想参与其中。在我离开之前，我们为竞选投入了大量的时间和精力。但与此同时，我对自己打造的团队充满信心，我们是一起打造的。”
卡赫勒自2016年以来一直在州参议院任职，从他被任命填补他父亲去世后的剩余任期开始。那年晚些时候，他第一次当选。
他是夏威夷航空公司的飞行员，在国民警卫队担任中校，驾驶C-17飞机。他嫁给了夏威夷航空公司的空姐，有三个女儿。
卡赫勒是“全民医疗保险”的倡导者，支持“绿色新政”的理念，以应对气候变化，帮助夏威夷实现其清洁能源目标。
乔·阿卡纳在共和党第二选区的初选中胜出，超过了其他八名共和党挑战者。第二选区覆盖了火奴鲁鲁郊区和夏威夷更偏远的岛屿。卡赫勒是11月在高度民主的夏威夷赢得席位的最大热门。
阿卡纳或卡赫勒的胜利将使夏威夷成为自建州以来第二个在国会的夏威夷原住民。第一位是2013年卸任的已故参议员丹尼尔·阿卡卡。
周六的选举，夏威夷成为第五个进行选举去年该州颁布了邮件投票法后，完全通过邮件。夏威夷与科罗拉多州、俄勒冈州、华盛顿州和犹他州一起举行了全邮件选举。在夏威夷，选民们也可以在过去两周内选择在少数选民服务中心亲自投票。但是绝大多数人都使用过邮件。
选举官员在7月中旬将选票邮寄给选民。他们将在周六下午7点前清点收到的选票。
邮寄选票可能会提高投票率。选举官员报告说，他们收到了大约38万张选票。
网上发布的夏威夷选举数据可以追溯到1992年，显示上一次超过30万张选票是在1994年，当时有30.97万张选票。
在2018年的初选中，只有286，180张选票。2016年，这一数字为252，725人。
现任美国众议员埃德·凯斯在没有对手的情况下赢得了第一个国会选区席位的民主党提名。凯斯第一次当选是在2018年。他在2002年至2007年期间代表第二国会选区，并在1994年至2002年期间在州议会任职。
罗恩·柯蒂斯击败了其他四名共和党初选挑战者，赢得了代表檀香山市区的席位。
Kahele wins Hawaii Democratic primary for Gabbard's seat
HONOLULU -- Kai Kahele was prepared to do the unthinkable: take on an incumbent from his own party for a U.S. House seat.
He felt so strongly thatHawaiiresidents were being hurt by the presidential ambitions of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard that he announced early on he would challenge his fellow Democrat.
Then, just months after Kahele got in the race, Gabbard announced she wouldn’t seek re-election to the House seat she had held since 2013 and would instead focus on her campaign for the White House.
Kahele’s bold move paved the way for him to claim an easy victory Saturday in the Democratic primary forHawaii’s 2nd Congressional District.
The 46-year-old said it's been a long journey since he launched his campaign in January 2019 and it's exciting to get to this point.
“I’m looking forward to hitting the campaign trail again and marching to the general," Kahele said in an interview.
Kahele had such an advantage over his competitors that he spent the past four months on active duty in theHawaiiNational Guard helping the state respond to the coronavirus pandemic. He was not able to conduct any campaign activities during that time.
“At times it’s been challenging because I wanted to be involved. We put so much time and effort into the campaign before I left. But at the same time, I was confident in the team that I had built and we had built together," Kahele said.
Kahele has served in the state Senate since 2016, starting from when he was appointed to fill the remainder of his father’s term after he died. He was elected for the first time later that year.
He works as a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines and flies C-17 jets as a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard. He’s married to a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant and has three daughters.
Kahele is an advocate of “Medicare for All” and supports the idea of a “Green New Deal” to address climate change and help Hawaii meet its clean energy goals.
Joe Akana won the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District, which covers suburban Honolulu and Hawaii’s more rural islands, over eight other GOP challengers. Kahele is the overwhelming favorite to win the seat in November in heavily Democratic Hawaii.
A win by either Akana or Kahele would give Hawaii its second Native Hawaiian in Congress since statehood. The first was the late Sen. Daniel Akaka, who left office in 2013.
With Saturday’selection, Hawaii becomes the fifth state to conduct anelectionentirely by mail after the state enacted a vote-by-mail law last year. Hawaii joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Utah in holding all-mail elections. In Hawaii, voters have also had the option to cast ballots in-person at a handful voter service centers over the past two weeks. But the overwhelming majority have used mail.
Elections officials mailed ballots to voters in mid-July. They will count votes received by 7 p.m. on Saturday.
The mail-in ballots likely boosted turnout. Elections officials reported they received some 380,000 ballots.
Hawaii elections data posted online going back to 1992 shows the last time more than 300,000 ballots were cast was in 1994, when there were 309,700.
Just 286,180 ballots were cast in the 2018 primary. In 2016, the number was 252,725.
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Ed Case won the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat after he ran unopposed. Case was first elected to this seat in 2018. He represented the 2nd Congressional District from 2002 to 2007 and served in the state House from 1994 to 2002.
Ron Curtis beat four other Republican primary challengers for the seat, which represents urban Honolulu.
