On May 7, 2026, Indivisible Hawaiʻi Statewide Network (IHSN) endorsed Jarrett Keohokalole for Hawaiʻi's Congressional District 1 (CD1). After a six-month process that included polling, candidate evaluation, and a statewide member vote, our leadership voted unanimously to support him as our next Representative to the US Congress.
In a democracy, we get to choose our leaders — and hold them accountable when they let us down. The August 8 primary is our chance to do exactly that.
Why this primary matters - for Hawaiʻi and the United States
Hawaiʻi has two Congressional Representatives: two votes in Congress. Right now, one of those votes is working against us.
Ed Case has represented CD1 since 2018. His record tells a consistent story: time and again, he has sided with corporate donors, voted with the MAGA agenda, and broken with the Democratic Party on issues that matter most to Hawaiʻi residents — working families, voting rights, ICE accountability, and more. His district is one of the most reliably Democratic in the country, which means the August 8 primary is where this election will be decided.
You can read the full story on this page, but the bottom line is this: Hawaiʻi needs all four of its representatives fighting for the people they represent. We can make that happen in August.
Who we endorse — and why
Indivisible Hawaiʻi Statewide Network enthusiastically endorses Jarrett Keohokalole for Hawaiʻi's Congressional District 1.
Two strong challengers stepped forward to take on Ed Case: State Senator Jarrett Keohokalole and State Representative Della Au Belatti. We have enormous respect for Representative Belatti — like Senator Keohokalole, she agreed to all of our endorsement criteria, and the admiration our members expressed for her throughout this process was genuine and widespread. This endorsement is not a judgment against her. It is a judgment about which candidate has the strongest path to defeating Ed Case.
When IHSN's Endorsement Panel and our full membership each voted independently on that question, both groups reached the same conclusion: Keohokalole has the more viable campaign.
By the March 31 FEC filings, Keohokalole had raised $588,091 from 939 unique donors, with $252,324 cash on hand and no loans. He has secured endorsements from two former governors (Neil Abercrombie and Ben Cayetano), three Honolulu City Council members, State House Majority Leader Sean Quinlan, and a broad coalition of state labor unions — including the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, UNITE HERE Local 5, the IBEW, the Teamsters, and several others — as well as national organizations including the National Education Association and Peace Action.
"I believe Senator Keohokalole prevailed with our members because he has built a strong campaign that has the best chance of winning the Congressional District 1 Primary Election, thanks to his fundraising, his endorsements, and the team he has assembled," said IHSN Lead Lisa Gibson.
Senator Keohokalole has said: "I am honored to be endorsed by Indivisible Hawaiʻi, a highly respected progressive grassroots organization that has supported the legislation I introduced to rein in ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, as well as my bill to end the plague of dark money in our politics, along with other progressive measures."
What we asked of both candidates
Before endorsing anyone, Indivisible Hawaiʻi established clear criteria that both challengers would need to meet. To be eligible, each candidate had to demonstrate effective opposition to the Trump agenda, strong personal ethics, a viable campaign, a commitment to running as a single challenger against Case, and alignment with IHSN's policy positions.
Those policy positions cover reclaiming democracy from billionaire influence, defeating authoritarianism, ending economic inequality, fighting for climate justice, defending human rights without compromise, and honoring Hawaiʻi's unique values and realities — including the Constitutionally protected spirit of Aloha.
Both challengers agreed to these criteria. We also made clear that if elected, these criteria would serve as the report card used to evaluate their performance in office.
→ Read the full endorsement criteria
The timing of our decision
The endorsement process ran from July 2025 through May 2026. It included a public poll, a statewide voter survey, Talk Story interviews with both challengers (Ed Case declined to participate), an Endorsement Panel drawn from IHSN founding members and chapter leads, and a final member vote.
While it took a while to make this decision, timing was a deliberate choice. We wanted to give our members as much time as possible to learn about the candidates and their campaigns, while still leaving enough runway to drive turnout for the August 8 primary. Moving earlier would have meant deciding with less information; moving later would have cost us organizing time.
When the full Indivisible Hawaiʻi membership voted in late April, Keohokalole received 54% to Belatti's 39%, with 7% undecided. Leadership then voted unanimously to confirm the endorsement on May 6th.
→ Read the full story of how we got here
How Indivisible will help Jarret Keohokalole win
Our goal is to inform voters about why Ed Case must be replaced — and then drive turnout for the August 8 primary. We've been doing this in congressional races since 2018 through postcarding, textbanking, phonebanking, canvassing, and direct outreach to friends and family.
Our advantage in this race is personal. Our membership includes many CD1 voters — people who know their neighbors, share common values, and understand what's at stake. In 2024 alone, over 700 IHSN members wrote more than 185,000 postcards to voters across the country. That same energy is coming home to Hawaiʻi this August.
→ Join the IHSN Elections Team
A note on the primary mechanics
Hawaiʻi's primary uses first-past-the-post vote counting: the candidate with the most votes wins, even without a majority. That means a split opposition vote could hand the race to an unpopular incumbent. It's why our endorsement criteria required both challengers to recognize the need for a single challenger — and why this endorsement matters beyond simply expressing a preference.
Combined with the historically low voter turnout in the primary, this system means that a very small number of voters can choose the winner. For example, in the 2024 CD1 Democratic primary, 90,960 ballots were cast, out of 360,000 registered voters at that time. If this had been a three-way race, the frontrunner could have won with as little as 40% of those ballots — meaning roughly 36,000 people (10% of registered voters) would have decided who represents the district.
→ Learn more about how primary vs general elections work
IHSN supports a move to ranked-choice voting, which would allow multiple challengers to run without splitting the vote. We have submitted a resolution to that effect to the upcoming Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi State Convention.
In the meantime: the primary is August 8. Ballots are received July 21. We need to win this one.
→ Learn about the 2026 Hawaiʻi State Primary
→ Read the press release
→ Join the 2026 Elections team