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The Democratic establishment won a key battle in the left’s ongoing civil war with its socialist insurgency on Saturday.
Longtime Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, won his primary bid to seek another term in the House of Representatives, defeating progressive state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole.
Case, who served in Congress from 2002 to 2007 and then won again in 2018, faced his toughest primary challenge yet this year. It comes amid a wider showdown between the Democratic establishment and its far-left flank that’s seen multiple House incumbents lose to socialist upstarts.
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Keohokalole, who’s been in Hawaii’s state legislature since 2014, was the most formidable of a group of primary challengers looking to oust Case this year.
Both raised considerable money on the campaign trail, though the incumbent had more money in his war chest at the outset of the race.
Keohokalole criticized Case for not doing enough to stand up to the Trump administration during the president’s second term, including President Donald Trump’s federal immigration operations.
The progressive challenger also attacked Case for being one of four House Democrats to vote for Republicans’ initial iteration of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in April 2025.
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That version would have imposed a federal voter ID requirement at the polls as well as a proof of citizenship mandate for registering to vote, but would have allowed for a written affidavit absent that proof.
Case told Hawaii News Now that he will “never” be someone who votes in lockstep with his party and said of the issue of noncitizen voting, “This has nothing to do with voter suppression. Now, those are fears and there are legitimate fears, and I accept those concerns.”
“It’s a solution in search of a problem. There is no security problem in our election system,” Keohokalole told the outlet.
Case later joined nearly all other House Democrats in opposing an updated version, the SAVE America Act, which would have vastly expanded the federal government’s authority over state voter rolls.
He now goes on to face Republican Adriel Lam in November.
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Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District, which encompasses part of Oahu, including Honolulu, is rated a safe Democratic seat with a Cook Political Report rating of D+13.
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