Hirono announces run for U.S. Senate

Mazie Hirono announced her candidacy for the United States Senate, Thursday in a letter from the “Mazie for Hawai‘i” campaign.

“Today, because we need a strong voice for a stronger Hawai‘i, I am announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate,” Hirono said in a video on the Friends of Mazie Hirono website. “I’m running for the Senate to continue our fight for more and better Hawai‘i jobs in tourism, construction, transportation; our fight for energy independence; the farmers and scientists who are building Hawai‘i’s renewable energy economy; and our fight for stronger public schools and early childhood eduation.”

She also said she intends to protect medicare and social security programs from being dismantled.

Hirono said her decision came after learning of Senator Daniel Akaka’s retirement from the U.S. Senate following more than three decades of public service.

Hirono was elected to Congress in 2006 and is serving her third term representing Hawai‘i’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes rural O‘ahu, the seven Neighbor Islands and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

She was elected to the Hawai‘i State House of Representatives in 1980 and in 1994, served two four-year terms as Hawai‘i’s ninth Lieutenant Governor.

“I wish Mazie well in her effort to seek higher elective office,” said former Hawai‘i Congressman Charles K. Djou in a release Thursday. “It was my pleasure to have served with her in Congress and to have represented her as a congressman and city councilmember.”

Djou represented Hawai‘i’s 1st Congressional District in the 111th Congress and previously served in the Hawai‘i State House and Honolulu City Council.

• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.