Pāʻele Kiakona, the Lahaina Strong organizer who once camped on a Kāʻanapali beach for 175 days to demand housing for fire survivors, just picked up an endorsement no Green Party candidate in Hawaiʻi has ever landed: the backing of five of the state's largest labor unions, representing nearly 96,000 workers. The announcement came as Kiakona formally launched his general election campaign for State House District 14 at Hanakaʻōʻō, also known as Canoe Beach, drawing nearly 100 supporters just over a month before the November 3 general election.
The endorsing unions — HGEA, ILWU Local 142, the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, United Public Workers, and Unite Here! Local 5 — represent a broad cross-section of public and service-sector workers across the islands, according to Maui Now. Kiakona's campaign says no Green candidate in state history has earned this level of labor support, and Kiakona himself framed the endorsements as a judgment on substance over party label. “The unions judged my record rather than my party label,” he said, according to the same report.
Union Leaders Rally Behind a Former Beach Encampment Organizer
Stephen “Steve” West, division director of ILWU Local 142's Maui division, said his union's members have committed to supporting Kiakona's bid. Ashley Olson, Maui Chapter President of the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association and herself a former Democratic candidate for District 14, announced her union's formal support for Kiakona at the launch, saying HSTA stands behind him. Jason Valdez represented Unite Here! Local 5 at the event, rounding out a lineup of labor leaders publicly aligning with a third-party candidate in a district long controlled by Democrats.
Olson's presence carries particular weight given how close the Democratic primary was in August. She finished second behind nominee Sne Patel by just 66 votes — 988 to 922 — while third-place finisher Kanamu Balinbin took 722 votes, according to the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative. Her crossover endorsement of Kiakona signals that the primary's internal Democratic divisions haven't fully healed heading into November.
A Rare Three-Way Race in a Democratic Stronghold
District 14 stretches along West Maui from Kahakuloa and Waiheʻe through portions of Waiehu and Māʻalaea, down through Olowalu, Lahaina, Lahainaluna, Kāʻanapali, Māhinahina Camp, Kahana, and Honokahua. The district has been a Democratic stronghold for decades, last electing a Republican to the state House in 2002, per the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative. That history was upended in March when incumbent Representative Elle Cochran defected from the Democratic Party to join the Republicans, citing frustration with the state's post-fire recovery response and feeling alienated by her Democratic colleagues, as reported by Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
Cochran's switch came after scrutiny of her attendance record. During the 60-day 2025 legislative session, she missed 51 floor sessions — an 85% absence rate — and 1,202 votes, a gap she defended by saying she was needed locally in West Maui to help wildfire survivors, per the same station's reporting. Now Cochran, Patel, and Kiakona are set for a three-way November matchup that political analysts told Honolulu Civil Beat creates a rare scenario in which a candidate could win the seat with a simple plurality rather than a majority.
Business Backing for Patel, Grassroots Roots for Kiakona
Patel, a former chair of the Maui County Liquor Commission and local business advocate, has built his own coalition of support, winning the endorsement of the Chamber of Maui Political Action Committee two days before Kiakona's union rollout, according to Honolulu Civil Beat's earlier candidate coverage. Kiakona's campaign, by contrast, says it has accepted zero dollars from real estate PACs, developers, or corporate interests, casting the race as a contest between business-aligned and labor-aligned visions for West Maui's recovery.
Kiakona's own resume blends grassroots organizing with formal civic service. He led Lahaina Strong's “Fishing for Dignified Housing” encampment on Kāʻanapali Beach for 175 days between November 2023 and May 2024, pressuring officials to convert short-term vacation rentals into housing for displaced fire survivors, according to Maui Now's 2024 coverage of the protest's end. That sustained pressure contributed to Mayor Richard Bissen proposing legislation aimed at phasing out roughly 7,000 short-term rentals in apartment-zoned districts by 2026, Civil Beat reported at the time. Kiakona currently serves as a sitting member of the Maui Board of Water Supply, a role he has cited as evidence of his readiness for state office.
Campaign Message Centers on Displacement and Storm Risk
At the beach launch, Kiakona told supporters that Lahaina can prove a united community can outlast any storm. His campaign pointed to three hurricanes that threatened Hawaiʻi in a single season as an urgent backdrop, alongside its own accounting that families remain displaced three years after the fire and that many workers can no longer afford to live in the communities they serve. Supporters reportedly took to the highway with signs following the launch event.
Shannon Iʻi, vice president and stewardship lead of Kaiāulu Initiatives and a Lahaina fire survivor, and Aunty Ginger Prince, a kūpuna advisory board member of the Lahaina Community Land Trust, were also present at the campaign launch. Kiakona's campaign says it will move into a full ground game of canvassing and phone banking starting this Saturday, October 3, as it seeks to convert union muscle into votes ahead of the historically Green Party-shut-out Hawaiʻi Legislature. Since gaining ballot access in 1992, Green candidates have won county council seats on the Big Island but have never won a seat in the state Legislature, according to the Green Party of Hawaiʻi's own history. Whether that changes will be decided by West Maui voters on November 3.
