INSIGHTS features two election contests in which there is no incumbent:

The race for Senate District 16, which includes Pearl City, Waimalu, ʻAiea and Hālawa in Central Oʻahu is a special election to fill the seat formerly held by Breene Harimoto, who died of cancer last June.

Running for the seat are Democrat Bennette Misalucha, who was appointed to the seat in July by Gov. David Ige and runs a strategic consulting company; and Republican Kelly Kitashima, a hotel executive who was raised in ʻAiea and is a former Mrs. Hawaii United States.

In the race for Honolulu City Council 3 (Windward Oʻahu), Esther Kiaʻāina and Greg Thielen are in a runoff for this seat formerly held by Ikaika Anderson. (Anderson resigned from the Council and took a job with a labor union.)

Kiaʻāina is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, the University of Southern California and the George Washington University Law School. She worked in the U.S. Department of Interior and is the Executive Director of the Pacific Basin Development Council. Thielen, born and raised in Windward Oʻahu, is a homebuilder and home remodeler, and has been named Building Industry Association-Hawaii Builder of the year. He is the son of longtime Windward Oʻahu State lawmaker Cynthia Thielen, who is retiring.

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