Indivisible Hawaiʻi Statewide Network (IHSN) unanimously endorses Della Au Belatti in the 2026 Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor. She is the only candidate in this race who has refused to benefit from dark money — and the only one who accepted our endorsement criteria and showed up for a conversation with our members. Here's the full story.
Lieutenant Governor: Hawaiʻi's second-highest elected official
The role of Lieutenant Governor functions as Hawaiʻi’s Secretary of State — a position most states fill with a separate election. The office carries a lot of administrative weight: overseeing name changes, authenticating documents for international use, managing administrative rules, and more.
The biggest power, though, is that the Lieutenant Governor becomes Acting Governor whenever the Governor is out of state or unable to perform their duties. And in Hawaiʻi's political history, the role has been an important stepping stone: four Lieutenant Governors have gone on to become Governor — including Josh Green, who held the office under Governor Ige before winning the governorship in 2022.
This race deserves more attention than it usually gets.
How the race for Lieutenant Governor came together
The dynamics of this race shifted significantly in late May. Representative Della Au Belatti had been running for Congress in Hawaiʻi's 1st Congressional District. When current Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke withdrew from her re-election bid amid a state attorney general's investigation into political corruption, Belatti's supporters urged her to reconsider. The Lieutenant Governor's race, previously headed toward an uncontested win for Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami, suddenly needed a serious challenger.
Belatti made the switch less than a week before the candidate filing deadline. Her entry into the race changed everything — including the Congressional race, where Jarrett Keohokalole now has a clear one-on-one shot at Ed Case.
With Belatti in, the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor became a three-way contest: State Representative Della Au Belatti, Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami, and Honolulu attorney John Choi.
Our endorsement process
Just like in the Congressional District 1 race, IHSN reached out to the three top candidates, presenting our endorsement criteria and inviting each to a virtual "Talk Story" session with our members.
The criteria include a pledge to refuse assistance from Super PACs and other undisclosed funding sources; click here to download the PDF with endorsement criteria.
Only Representative Belatti accepted both the criteria and the invitation.
After the Talk Story, IHSN polled the members who attended.
- 90% recommended endorsing Della Au Belatti
- The other 10% selected "no one at this time"
- Neither Kawakami nor Choi received a single vote.
IHSN leadership then voted unanimously to endorse Della Au Belatti’s candidacy.
We recommend all voters watch the Talk Story to hear Della speak directly. She lays out clear values and concrete priorities: affordability, good government, stopping federal overreach, housing and sustainable tourism, the Ready Keiki early childhood education initiative, healthcare access, and more.
Della Au Belatti: her record and her campaign
Della Au Belatti has represented Hawaiʻi House District 25 (Makiki, Punchbowl) since 2006 — nearly two decades in the State Legislature. She served as Health Committee Chair and House Majority Leader, led efforts to protect reproductive healthcare, strengthened Hawaiʻi's mental health services, and helped navigate the state through COVID-19. More recently, she co-convened the Good Government Caucus focused on government transparency.
The issue she's made central to her campaign is one IHSN has been fighting for at the Capitol: ending the influence of dark corporate money on Hawaiʻi elections. Belatti was one of the champions of Act 11 (SB 2471), the Sunshine Over Dark Money bill that passed the legislature 74-1 on the last day of the 2026 session and was signed into law by Governor Josh Green on May 14th. Hawaiʻi became the first state in the country to directly counter the Citizens United Supreme Court decision — and Indivisible Hawaiʻi members were part of making that happen.
Act 11 takes effect July 1, 2027, and legal challenges are already being prepared. As Lieutenant Governor, Belatti has committed to championing any amendments necessary to ensure the law holds up in court.
She is running a grassroots campaign, visiting voters across all the islands, and has made a deliberate choice about how she's funding it: she is asking supporters to contribute $100 or less. That ceiling matters, because Hawaiʻi has a partial public campaign financing program that matches small-dollar donations; this means a $100 contribution to Della's campaign goes further than the same amount to a campaign relying on large donors. Our donations allow her to go into office without owing favors to the corporations and wealthy donors who use Super PACs to buy political influence.
Indivisible Hawaiʻi advocates against dark money and for public campaign funding; this is what that looks like in practice.
How you can help
The primary is August 8, and mail ballots go out July 21. We need your help to elect better leaders for Hawaiʻi.
- Watch the Talk Story. Hearing Della speak for herself is the best way to understand what she stands for. Watch it here.
- Contribute $100 or less to her campaign. This keeps her campaign in the public matching funds program. Donate at dellabelatti.com.
- Get involved with IHSN's elections work. We're organizing to turn out voters for the August 8 primary on both the Congressional race and this one. Join the 2026 elections team.