Moderate Democrat in Hawaii Defeats Progressive House Challenger

Representative Ed Case, a moderate Democrat from Hawaii, warded off a progressive challenger in his primary race on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

His victory defies a larger trend of left-wing challengers ousting pro-Israel incumbents this year. Mr. Case, 73, is also among the few older, centrist Democrats who have hung onto their seats after serious primary challenges.

The strongest of Mr. Case’s primary opponents was Jarrett Keohokalole, a state senator 30 years his junior. Mr. Keohokalole argued that Mr. Case was out of touch with the struggles of ordinary people in Hawaii as the cost of living has skyrocketed, and that he was not speaking out enough against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Mr. Case is among the most fiscally conservative Democrats in the House and has repeatedly broken ranks with his party, angering some on the left. He has represented Hawaii’s First District, anchored in Honolulu, since 2019.

Mr. Keohokalole criticized Mr. Case’s vote last year for legislation pushed by President Trump that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. (Mr. Case told Hawaii News Now that he no longer supported the measure after Republicans stripped an option for voters to attest to their citizenship in writing if they lack documentation.) Mr. Keohokalole said that unlike Mr. Case, he would not vote to send military aid to Israel for the war on Gaza.

But generational change was perhaps the central theme of the campaign. One of Mr. Keohokalole’s ads featured a staticky video of Mr. Case saying during his 2006 bid for the U.S. Senate: “It is time for the next generation of leadership. We just need the courage to choose it.” (That year, Mr. Case, then 53, was challenging Senator Daniel Akaka, then 82, in the Democratic primary.)

The ad then cut to Mr. Keohokalole, 43, who said: “It’s 20 years later, and things aren’t going well. Families are leaving, and Washington still isn’t listening. Hawaii deserves a representative that’s living what you’re living.”

In response, Mr. Case argued that the state needed his seniority and expertise to reap the most in federal benefits. He emphasized his spot on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which sets the budget.

“Without good representation in Congress, we’d just get lost,” Mr. Case said in one television ad. “Every day, I use my seniority and service on Appropriations to fight for our Hawaii, including billions of dollars in federal assistance every year. In uncertain times, strong, steady, experienced leadership matters.”

A former majority leader of the state’s House of Representatives, Mr. Case represented Hawaii’s Second Congressional District from 2002 to 2007 after winning a special election to fill the seat held by Representative Patsy Mink, who died days after Mr. Case lost the 2002 Democratic primary for governor. Mr. Case returned to Washington in 2019 to represent the First Congressional District and has held the seat since. His family came to Hawaii from Kansas in 1896, according to his campaign website.

Mr. Case’s victory in the solidly blue district makes it highly likely that he will win re-election in November.