Aloha Reader,

It was a good week for the State of Hawai'i. We had record success in advancing bills through the state legislature on a long list of priorities related to Migrant Rights, Affordability for Working Families, Good Government/Fair Elections, Healthcare Access, LGBTQ+ Rights, and Gun Safety. We covered the details in a webinar on Friday, available now on our YouTube channel.

Today, I want to focus on the most historic bill of all, and it happened only because of you. Don't believe? Read on!

Undoing Citizen United

Sunshine over Dark Money passes the Legislature with Nearly Unanimous Vote

WIN: Friday, SB 2471, the bill to get dark money out of Hawai'i elections, passed both chambers of the Legislature. The combined vote was 75-1.  

After the final session on Friday, we hosted a panel with the bills' sponsors, Senators Rhoads and Keohokālole, one of its main House champions, Representative Matayoshi, and Emeritus UH Law Professor and Dean Avi Soifer.

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We are all still catching our breath. There were so many times when this measure seemed doomed, in committee, in conference, in floor amendment, and nonetheless by the end, every legislator wanted to hitch their wagon behind this locomotive.

Tom Moore with the Center for American Progress summarizes the win in 45 seconds with his post on Bluesky.

You did this, beginning to end. The backstory is important.

In November, on our signal message board, Maryellen Tuttell (KIND leadership) shared a Substack publication from Robert Reich titled "How to Get Rid of 'Citizens United".

The next day, Younghee Overly, who leads the Indivisible Hawai'i Statewide Network's Public Policy Action Group (PPAG), forwarded it to the chair of the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, Karl Rhoads. 

Senator Rhoads told us Friday that he had been thinking for years about how to deal with Citizens United, and that Reich's essay was the first time he saw a workable plan. He submitted it at the start of the legislative session, where it became SB2471. PPAG leaders Younghee and Marlene Thom ensured we tracked the bill and continued advocating for it.

On Friday, Senators Rhoads and Keohokālole and Representative Matayoshi confirmed that, without the Indivisibles continual outreach, this bill would have died.

Indivisibles testified in all committee, reached out to the conferees, pushed their legislators for a floor amendment and passage. Even on Friday morning, the sponsors were worried about the floor votes. In the end, we won with a nearly unanimous vote.  

It's true: You and I - we all did it! 🎉🎉🎉

TAKE ACTION: Write to your State Senator and Representative to thank them for this extraordinary accomplishment.

Now it's time for Governor Green to sign the bill into law. As recently as Monday, in an interview with Hawaii News Now (HNN), he sounded hesitant. We can’t let him kill this bill after all our hard work!

TAKE ACTION: Join the statewide pop-up rallies on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, at 11 am to tell Governor Green to sign SB2471 into law. We will be in our usual spot on Queen Ka'ahumanu Hwy, south of Henry Street, behind the Mormon Temple Site (makai side), and provide signs or bring your own. Register here.

If the Governor signs this bill into law, not only will it clean up Hawai'i elections, but it will also be a model for the other 49 states. This will be national news.

TAKE ACTION: Reach out to a curious friend or neighbor to join Indivisible. Tell them about SB2471! They don't need to do a lot, but if we all do a little something, it can make a huge difference. Especially now.

Replace Ed Case 

Hawai'i sends only four people to Congress, two in the Senate and two in the House of Representatives. We need all four to be fighters, not folders.

It's time to replace Ed Case, the Representative for Hawai'i Congressional District 1 (CD1). His repeated capitulation effectively negates the effectiveness of our Big Island representative Jill Tokuda (CD2). The most recent example is his vote on April 20, 2026, to extend warrantless mass surveillance on US citizens for three years, despite clear evidence of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) abuse. For more information on why it's important to get rid of Ed Case, see what he has done to Hawai'i. 

Our Endorsement

Indivisible Hawai'i Statewide Network (IHSN) endorses Jarrett Keohokālole in the primary for CD1, the seat now held by Ed Case. This endorsement is the result of an eight-month vetting process.

State Senator Keohokālole, who co-sponsored SB2471 (discussed above), agreed to all of our endorsement criteria which are listed here.

We need a strong single challenger to Ed Case, and choosing one was not easy. Both candidates are excellent politicians. Many of us love and support Della Au Belatti. However, after careful consideration, Indivisible members across Hawai'i recommended endorsing Senator Keohokālole by a margin of 15 points, and the IHSN leadership unanimously agreed with this decision.

TAKE ACTION: Join our Primary Election Team to get notification of postcarding, textbanking, phonebanking, and canvassing efforts for the primary. Click to Register.

By the way, all the work surrounding the endorsement wouldn't be necessary if Hawai'i had Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). That's why we are advancing a resolution at the Hawai'i Democratic Party convention on May 28, 2026, to approve RCV for both our primary and general elections. Even securing RCV for the primaries only would be a huge improvement.

TAKE ACTION: Speak to your local Democratic Party Precinct Chair and tell them to have their delegates support RCV at the State Convention. Find your district officers here.

Postcarding

At our last two postcard parties, we wrote/distributed 980 postcards to voters. This brings our total to 9,034 voters contacted so far in 2026. (Yay!) Does your get-out-the-vote work make a difference? You bet it does, now more than ever. Here are some stories from Texas school board members who were recently elected.

• “Your help … really did bring people to the polls. The margins of victory were so small that we needed every vote and every reminder to vote.” – Darrell Brown
• “The postcards were amazing. So many people showed up to vote with them. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are for the support from all over. It was such an encouragement. Please let everyone know.” - Matthew White

And now we will harness our Blue Wave Energy for a postcard campaign close to home: get out the vote for Jarrett Keohokālole for US House. It’s time to replace Ed Case - he's hurt working families, refused to protect our ohana from Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and wants to strip voting rights from women.

Future Events

• We’ll have an event every Thursday from now until Election Day (November 3), from 1:30 to 3:00 pm at Gypsea Gelato in Kealekekua. Register.
• We’ll have our monthly Sunday event on June 7, 2026, from 3 to 5 pm at Kahalu’u Beach Park Pavilion. Register.

We provide you with free postcards, voter lists, scripts, and instructions. You provide the stamps, your writing muscles, and your favorite pens. We always appreciate your generous donation of postcard stamps or money toward postage, so that all postcard writers are welcome (including those with limited financial capacity). This way, we can all find ways to help get out the vote.

Postcard at home

We’ve got you covered. Pick up a postcard packet at one of our postcard hubs and write at home. More info here.

Already got your own postcards and just need addresses? You can get addresses emailed to you here. Choose NAMES ONLY. Or you can get addresses directly from postcarding organizations. State and local elections, like city council and school board races, are happening now! Sign up directly with Postcards To Voters and Postcards For Democracy. Both organizations allow you to choose only 1 or 4 addresses, with a minimum of 1. It’s easy and fun. You can find more info on Geri’s List.

That's a wrap for today - - we hope to see you at Tuesday's pop-up.

Warmest Aloha,
Sam & the Leadership team

- The Kona Indivisible Team ​konaindivisible.org​ ​info@konaindivisible.org​

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