Tyler Dos Santos-Tam is asking Honolulu's urban core for four more years on the City Council, pointing to 61 bills he says he introduced over his first term, 43 of which became law. His challenger, Corey Morihara, is countering with a pitch built less on legislative tallies and more on what he calls Oahu's crumbling pipes underground. The two face off in the Nov. 3 general election for District 6, which represents roughly 112,000 residents.
District 6 stretches across some of Honolulu's most varied terrain, spanning portions of Kakaako, Downtown Honolulu, Chinatown, Punchbowl, Papakolea, Pauoa Valley, Nuuanu, Iwilei, Liliha, Alewa Heights, Kalihi and Kalihi Valley, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Dos Santos-Tam, 38, was elected to the council in 2022 after working as a lobbyist for the state's unionized building and construction industry. He's seeking a second four-year term and says his legislative output outpaces that of any sitting council member, excluding bills introduced at the mayor's request.
A Record Built on Dozens of Bills
Dos Santos-Tam says his 61 introduced bills and 43 enactments add up to 29% of the 147 council-led and city-initiated bills enacted in Honolulu from 2023 through 2026. Among the measures he cites are bills aimed at closing illegal game rooms, allowing more small- and medium-sized apartment buildings in urban Honolulu, setting e-bike standards and establishing an affordable-housing preconstruction program, the Star-Advertiser reports. He also points to legislation creating a downtown business improvement district and making outdoor sidewalk dining permanent for restaurants, along with a program meant to help small businesses weather rail construction.
One bill he highlights by number, Bill 3, he says helped clear a homeless encampment on Kanoa Street in Palama that had existed for more than a decade. If reelected, Dos Santos-Tam says he'll keep working on homelessness in downtown and Chinatown, mitigating the effects of rail construction on small businesses, and fixing maintenance problems on private streets and roadways. Civil Beat reports he's also floated splitting the Department of Planning and Permitting into separate permitting and long-term planning departments, and has called affordability the top concern he hears from constituents, according to a Civil Beat candidate Q&A.
Housing, Transit and Safety Priorities
For a second term, Dos Santos-Tam says his priorities include expanding affordable housing, accelerating transit-oriented development planning, growing reduced-fare bus programs and putting unused city affordable-housing funds to work. He wants the Department of Planning and Permitting to move faster on transit-oriented development as the Skyline rail project, which costs more than $10 billion, is set to reach the Civic Center in Kakaako by 2030, according to city officials cited by the Star-Advertiser. He's also previously said he'll continue expanding the low-income bus fare program, per the Civil Beat Q&A.
Oahu recorded 82 road deaths in 2025, up from 51 in 2024; statewide road deaths rose by more than 20% and reached their highest count since 2007, Civil Beat reports. The same Civil Beat piece from June notes that during his first term, Dos Santos-Tam introduced 38 ordinances, accounting for slightly more than half the bills that became law in that period, excluding administration-backed measures.
Morihara's Pitch: Fix the Pipes First
Morihara, 39, works as a general contractor, small-business owner and building inspector aide with the city Department of Planning and Permitting, and he's running for office for the first time. He names wastewater infrastructure as one of Oahu's biggest challenges, arguing that outdated sewer systems are holding back housing and development across the island. He's calling for sewer upgrades designed to last the next 100 years rather than patchwork fixes.
Morihara wants a broader plan that ties together traffic, wastewater and sanitation, trash collection, housing density and waterway protection, rather than tackling each issue in isolation. He's also proposed a hotel district along the rail line outside Waikiki, along with condos and affordable housing clustered near rail routes, but says infrastructure needs to catch up before development pushes beyond the existing system's capacity. He's described his campaign as built around direct conversations with residents instead of traditional campaign spending.
Elsewhere on Oahu, campaign finance disparities have shaped other council races too. In District 4, which spans from Waikiki to Hawaii Kai, former council member Trevor Ozawa reported raising more than $101,608 through late September, while opponent Tara Malia Gregory's campaign raised $8,099 over the same period, per the Star-Advertiser's earlier reporting. That race opened up after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in a 3-2 decision on Aug. 28, 2026 that incumbent Tommy Waters was ineligible to seek a third consecutive term under city charter term limits, clearing the way for Ozawa and Gregory to advance as the two highest-polling eligible candidates.
Two other council seats won't appear on the Nov. 3 ballot at all. Matt Weyer secured the District 2 seat and Val Aquino Okimoto secured the District 8 seat after each ran unopposed in the Aug. 8 primary, the Star-Advertiser reported. Those uncontested outcomes stand in contrast to District 6, where voters are weighing an incumbent's legislative resume against a challenger staking his campaign on shoe-leather outreach and warnings about aging pipes beneath Oahu's streets.
