Colleen Hanabusa

The 21st District includes Wai'anae, where her family has resided for four generations, as well as Ko Olina, Kahe Point, Nanakuli, Ma'ili, Makaha, Makua and Ka'ena Point.

One of Hanabusa's first acts upon being elected was to organize senators to vote against the second-term confirmation of Hawaii Attorney General Margery Bronster.

Colleen Wakako Hanabusa (花房 若子, born May 4, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for HI's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and again from 2016 to 2019.

In 1969 she graduated from St. Andrew's Priory.

She received a B.A. in economics and sociology in 1973 and an M.A. in sociology in 1975 from the University of Hawaiʻi and in 1977 received a J.D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Hanabusa is a labor lawyer with almost 30 years of experience, and a corporate officer in a family-run corporation.

She has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, Woodward and White, Inc., served as a delegate to the Hawai`i State Judicial Conference, and was noted in Honolulu Magazine as one of Hawai`i's A+ Attorneys in 1993 and subsequent years.

In November 1998 Hanabusa was elected the state senator from the 21st District.

In 2002, while in the state legislature, Hanabusa emerged as the leading advocate for legislation authorizing $75 million in tax credits for Ko Olina Resort, a move she declared necessary to spur development for the Leeward area, but which others saw as a reward for a close associate and political backer, Ko Olina developer Jeff Stone.

When Governor Ben Cayetano vetoed the tax credit bill, Hanabusa took the unprecedented step of suing to overturn the veto.

Within months, Hanabusa's then-fiancé John Souza received a preferential deal in purchasing one of Stone's homes in Ko Olina.

In 2003 she was named one of Hawaii's "top ten political power brokers", along with the state's governor and two U.S. senators, by Hawaii Business Magazine.

Hanabusa ran unsuccessfully in a special election held in January 2003 to replace the late Patsy T. Mink as U.S. Representative from Hawai'i's 2nd congressional district, losing to Ed Case, a Blue Dog Democrat.

In February 2005, less than two years after Souza bought the home, he sold it for a $421,000 profit, according to real estate records.

Hanabusa served as Senate Majority Leader before being elected the first woman president of the Senate in 2006, making her the first Asian American woman to preside over a state legislative chamber in the United States.

In 2006 she ran for the same seat after Case retired to unsuccessfully challenge Senator Daniel Akaka in the Democratic primary.

Hanabusa was again unsuccessful, losing in the Democratic primary to former Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono by 844 votes.

Some in the national Democratic Party indicated a preference for Case, who previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives before an unsuccessful U.S. Senate primary challenge to Akaka in 2006.

The national Democratic leadership remained officially neutral.

She served as Senate Majority Leader before being elected Hawaii's first female President of the Senate in 2007.

Souza and Hanabusa, who were engaged at the time and married in 2008, then bought a $1 million home in another Ko Olina subdivision developed by Centex Homes of Texas.

The Ko Olina tax-credit legislation, intended to promote development of a "world-class" aquarium at the resort, expired after plans for the aquarium were abandoned.

Ko Olina Resort eventually returned the tax credit, but the Lingle Administration and Hanabusa disagreed on how to use the returned funds.

Hanabusa ran unsuccessfully in the May 22, 2010, special election to serve out the remaining months of former representative Neil Abercrombie's term; then-City Councilman Charles Djou defeated her without winning a majority of the votes under the rules of the all-party election that split the Democratic vote between Hanabusa and rival Ed Case, a moderate Democrat.

U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka supported Hanabusa's special election campaign and backed her again in the September primary.

On August 24, 2011, she announced her intention to run for reelection to Congress.

On December 17, 2012, after the death of U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, it was announced that Inouye had sent a letter shortly before his death to Governor Neil Abercrombie, stating his desire that Hanabusa be appointed to the seat.

Abercrombie decided against appointing Hanabusa and selected Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz instead.

Hanabusa challenged Schatz in the Democratic primary for the 2014 special election, but narrowly lost.

In 2016, Hanabusa announced her intention to run in the 1st congressional district special election to fill the remaining term of Representative Mark Takai, who died in July 2016; she won the Democratic primary for the race on August 13.

Hanabusa also won the election on November 8, 2016, and was sworn in on November 14.

In 2017, Hanabusa announced her decision to run for the governorship of Hawaii in 2018 rather than reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.

She lost to incumbent Democratic governor David Ige in the primary, and Ige was subsequently reelected to a second term.

A member of the Democratic Party, she ran for her party's nomination for governor of Hawaii in 2018, challenging and losing to incumbent and fellow Democrat David Ige.

Before her election to the United States House of Representatives, Hanabusa was a member of the Hawaii Senate.

In February 2020, Hanabusa announced her campaign for Mayor of Honolulu in 2020.

She placed third in the nonpartisan blanket primary.

A fourth-generation American of Japanese ancestry, Hanabusa grew up in Waianae with her two younger brothers, her parents, and her grandparents.

Her parents, Isao and June, owned a gas station.

Her maternal grandfather was confined at the Honouliuli Internment Camp on Oahu during World War II.