David Ige | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2014 | |
| 8thGovernor of Hawaii | |
| In office December 1, 2014 – December 5, 2022 | |
| Lieutenant | Shan Tsutsui Doug Chin Josh Green |
| Preceded by | Neil Abercrombie |
| Succeeded by | Josh Green |
| Member of theHawaii Senate from the 16th district | |
| In office November 1994 – November 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Eloise Tungpalan |
| Succeeded by | Breene Harimoto |
| Member of theHawaii House of Representatives from the 34th district 43rd (1985–1992) | |
| In office December 2, 1985 – November 1994 | |
| Appointed by | George Ariyoshi |
| Preceded by | Arnold Morgado |
| Succeeded by | Mark Takai |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Yutaka Ige (1957-01-15)January 15, 1957 (age 68) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Hawaii, Manoa (BS,MBA) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Campaign website |
David Yutaka Ige (/ˈiːɡeɪ/; 伊芸 豊,Ige Yutaka ;born January 15, 1957) is an American politician and engineer who served as the eighthgovernor of Hawaii from 2014 to 2022. ADemocrat, he served in theHawaii State Senate from 1994 to 2014 and theHawaii House of Representatives from 1985 to 1994.
In the2014 gubernatorial election, he defeated incumbent GovernorNeil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary, and won the general election overRepublican nomineeDuke Aiona. Ige was reelected in2018, defeating Republican nomineeAndria Tupola.
Ige was born and raised inPearl City, Hawaii, the fifth of six sons of Tokio and Tsurue Ige, who are ofOkinawan descent.[1] DuringWorld War II, Tokio served in the100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team[2] and was awarded thePurple Heart andBronze Star. After the war, Tokio Ige worked as anironworker on construction projects while Tsurue Ige worked as a nurse anddental hygienist. Tokio (born 1917) died in 2005 at age 86, whilst his wife, Tsurue (born 1923) died in 2021 at age 98.[3]
David Ige attended public schools in Pearl City—Pearl City Elementary School, Highlands Intermediate School, andPearl City High School—and participated in community sports, playing in the Pearl City Little League for eight years. At the newly built Pearl City High School, Ige excelled in many activities. In his junior year he was elected student body vice president, and he served as senior class president the next year. His campaign for student body president stressed diversity and an end to bullying. Ige also led his varsity tennis team to a championship and was honored as the "Scholar-Athlete of the Year." He graduated fifth in his class of more than 500 students in 1975.[1]
Ige was accepted by theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, but attended theUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned aBachelor of Science degree inelectrical engineering. At UH he served as student body secretary and an officer of several honor societies as well as treasurer and vice-president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Sigma.
Ige met his wife, Dawn, at the University of Hawaii. They have three children: Lauren, Amy, and Matthew.
After college, while working forGTE Hawaiian Tel, Ige took graduate courses at UH and earned aMaster of Business Administration degree indecisions sciences. In 1986Hawaii Business Magazine named him one of the university's Top 10 MBA students.
Before being elected governor of Hawaii, Ige served as project manager with Robert A. Ige and Associates, Inc., Vice President of engineering at NetEnterprise, and senior principal engineer at Pihana Pacific, which established the first world-class data center and carrier-neutral Internet exchange in Hawaii and the Pacific. Before that, he worked as an engineer for GTE Hawaiian Tel for more than 18 years.
Ige was originally appointed to theHawaii House of Representatives on December 2, 1985, by GovernorGeorge Ariyoshi after RepresentativeArnold Morgado resigned to run for a seat on theHonolulu City Council.[4][5] He served in theHawaii State Senate from 1995 to 2015.[6] During his legislative career, Ige served as chair of nine different committees.[7] He focused much of his career as a legislator on information and telecommunications policy,[7] and co-authoried the Hawaii Telecommunications and Information Industries Act that established the state information network and created the Hawaii Information Network Corporation. Ige was at the center of Hawaii's efforts to diversify its economy. He was responsible for establishing seed capital and venture capital programs, software development initiatives, and technology transfer programs. Ige was a member of the inaugural 1997 class of the Pacific Century Fellows.[8]
Ige was reelected to the Hawaii State Senate in 2012, defeating Republican challenger and former U.S. Naval Air crewman, Army Captain, and small business executive Mike Greco.[9] Greco was the first challenger Ige faced in a general election in over a decade.[10]
Ige ran against incumbentNeil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary for the2014 gubernatorial election, after Abercrombie upset the supporters of late US senatorDaniel Inouye by ignoring his wish to be replaced byColleen Hanabusa.[6][11] Though outspent in the race, Ige defeated Abercrombie, 66% to 31%.[12][13][14] Ige's victory made him the first candidate to ever defeat an incumbent governor of Hawaii in a primary election.[15]
Ige facedRepublicanDuke Aiona and IndependentMufi Hannemann in the general election. He won by 12 percentage points.[16]
Ige was sworn in as the eighth governor of Hawaii on December 1, 2014, with Lieutenant GovernorShan Tsutsui, in theHawaii State Capitol Rotunda.[17] Ige is the firstperson of Okinawan descent to be elected governor of a U.S. state.[18]
Governor Ige's inauguration theme of "honoring the past and charting a new tomorrow" was on display throughout the ceremony, which paid tribute to his father who served in the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the U.S. Army during World War II alongside the lateU.S. SenatorDaniel Inouye.[17]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(October 2022) |
.jpg)
.jpg)
In October 2015, Ige declared a state of emergency due to the escalating scale of thehomelessness problem; in 2015, Hawaii had the highest rate of homeless persons per capita in the United States.[19] In June 2017, following PresidentDonald Trump's decision towithdraw the United States from theParis Agreement on climate change, Ige signed two bills that respectively committed the state to meeting regardless itsgreenhouse gas emission targets under the Paris Agreement and established a carbon reduction andsoil health task force.[20]
After anincoming missile alert was erroneously sent to all smartphones in the state and broadcast over local television and radio on January 13, 2018, Ige apologized for the mistake,[21] which he attributed to human error during a shift change at theHawaii Emergency Management Agency. He pledged to reevaluate the state's emergency procedures to prevent a recurrence of the false alert, which caused widespread panic and confusion in the state.[22]
On February 22, 2019, President Trump appointed Ige to the bipartisanCouncil of Governors, on which Ige served as co-chair.[23]
In June 2022 Ige signed atransgender rights bill into law, expanding gender affirming care for Hawaii's residents.[24]
Ige has allowed theThirty Meter Telescope to be built onMauna Kea.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige | 2,907 | 86.31% | |
| Democratic | Gloria "Moana" May | 461 | 13.69% | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | 5,758 | 82.55% | |
| Republican | Monte Rae Parker | 1,217 | 17.45% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | 11,866 | 75.49% | |
| Republican | Stef Davis | 3,852 | 24.51% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | 13,487 | 84.11% | |
| Libertarian | Robert Grayson | 2,548 | 15.89% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | N/A | 100.00% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | N/A | 100.00% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | N/A | 100.00% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mike Greco | 3,705 | 20.74 | |
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige | 157,050 | 67.35% | |
| Democratic | Neil Abercrombie (incumbent) | 73,507 | 31.52% | |
| Democratic | Van "Tanaban" Tanabe | 2,622 | 1.12% | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige &Shan Tsutsui | 181,106 | 49.45% | |
| Republican | Duke Aiona & Elwin Ahu | 135,775 | 37.08% | |
| Independent | Mufi Hannemann & Les Chang | 42,934 | 11.72% | |
| Libertarian | Jeff Davis & Cynthia "Lahi" Marlin | 6,395 | 1.75% | |
| Democratichold | ||||
Source:[25]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige (incumbent) | 124,528 | 51.4% | |
| Democratic | Colleen Hanabusa | 107,583 | 44.4% | |
| Democratic | Ernest Caravalho | 5,659 | 2.3% | |
| Democratic | Wendell Ka'ehu'ae'a | 2,293 | 0.9% | |
| Democratic | Richard Kim | 1,575 | 0.6% | |
| Democratic | Van Tanabe | 775 | 0.3% | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Ige &Josh Green (inc.) | 244,814 | 62.7% | |
| Republican | Andria Tupola & Marissa Kerns | 131,604 | 33.7% | |
| Green | Jim Brewer & Renee Ing | 10,112 | 2.6% | |
| Nonpartisan | Terence Teruya & Paul Robotti | 4,062 | 1.0 | |
| Democratichold | ||||
Hawaii has long rewarded political incumbents. Since its statehood, no governor had ever lost in a primary in Hawaii. Additionally, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser notes that "no incumbent U.S. senator – appointed or elected – has lost an election."
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Neil Abercrombie | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Hawaii 2014,2018 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Hawaii 2014–2022 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former Governor | Order of precedence of the United States Within Hawaii | Succeeded byas Former Governor |
| Order of precedence of the United States Outside Hawaii | Succeeded byas Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives | |
