TOO CLOSE TO JUST GIVE UP

We came too close to just give up. 

In 2020 we lost by 167 votes, a percentage of the vote total so slim (0.3%) that it took the Office of Elections three weeks to call the race.

Four days after the election, not knowing the final results, I appeared on Jay Fidel's Think Tech Hawaii show and declared, "Win or lose, I will be on the ballot in 2022!"

While our near victory proved it is possible to replace a 26-year incumbent standing in the way of progress even if he is Speaker of the House, his near loss drove him to open this year's legislative session with a slate of priorities that mirrored my 2020 campaign platform. Raise the minimum wage to $18/hour; shut down the leaking Red Hill fuel tanks; provide the funding needed to house Kanaka Maoli on their own homelands. After blocking these reforms year after year, my opponent was suddenly all for them.

Audacity. Perseverance. Grit. Whatever you call it, this is how I roll. My proposal for restoring democracy to the House of Representatives is clear and achievable. The transparency and decentralization of power I called for in my 2020 concession speech is the same transparency and decentralization of power I am calling for today. 

The ad below is one of a three-part series currently running in Midweek. The legislators who have amassed power through corrupt practices have proven they will not close the loopholes that allow them to do so. It is up to the people to close these loopholes by electing candidates committed to the anti-corruption platform outlined in my Midweek ads and my recent article in the Civil Beat

Please join our campaign to bring proactive leadership to our State Capitol. 
Together, we CAN!

Kim Coco Iwamoto