Maui's seat on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees is once again a two-person contest between incumbent Carmen Hulu Lindsey and challenger Keʻeaumoku Kapu, the same pair who faced off for the position back in 2018. Lindsey has held the Maui trustee seat since 2013, while Kapu has spent the years since their last matchup deep in cultural preservation and post-wildfire recovery work in West Maui. The two squared off Wednesday evening in a forum simulcast on KGMB and K5 from 6:30 to 7 p.m.
The race matters well beyond Maui's shores, because OHA trustees are elected statewide. As Civil Beat reports, the whole state votes for the Maui seat, not just island residents. That same outlet notes the two are facing off in the race to represent Maui on the nine-member board, whose trustees serve four-year terms. According to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, five of the board's nine seats, including Maui's, are up for election this cycle.
Lindsey, who chaired the OHA board for four years from 2020 to 2024, is campaigning on finishing work she says remains undone. She has pointed to Public Land Trust revenues, housing opportunities and protection of Native Hawaiian cultural resources as reasons she's seeking another term, and has said she wants to continue securing more money for OHA beneficiaries. In 2022, state lawmakers increased OHA's annual public-land payments from roughly $15 million to $21.5 million and approved $64 million in back pay, a shift Lindsey wants built on through a Public Lands Trust working group she hopes to see complete its task of establishing a new annual payment formula.
Housing and Cultural Priorities Divide the Candidates
Lindsey has also said she supports investments that create housing, education, workforce development and Native Hawaiian-owned businesses, and argues additional Public Land Trust revenues should strengthen housing, education, cultural preservation and long-term investments benefiting future generations. She backs development of a Hawaiian cultural center at Kakaʻako Makai. The stakes around housing are significant: OHA itself reports that an estimated 51 percent of Native Hawaiians who rent their homes are cost burdened, part of why the agency lists expanding access to stable, affordable rental housing and sustainable homeownership among its strategic goals.
Kapu, a cultural practitioner and community advocate from West Maui, wants OHA to lean further into hyperlocal concerns, including Maui watershed management and county-level land-use decisions, the Civil Beat report notes. He has also pushed for more place-based educational opportunities for children, including work in loʻi patches and ocean education at local beaches. His family was affected by the 2023 wildfires, and he has led efforts through Nā ʻAikāne o Maui to restore a royal complex in Lahaina after the organization's own site was destroyed in the fires; the group also oversaw cultural monitoring work and aid distribution sites in Lahaina in the fires' aftermath.
Forum Questions Touch Lahaina Recovery and the State's Unpaid Debt
During the candidate forums, moderators asked what OHA should do to help Native Hawaiians remain in Hawaiʻi or return home. Lindsey said OHA should help create a pathway to permanent home ownership rather than relying solely on short-term assistance, while Kapu said he would examine how Māori communities in Aotearoa stimulated their economy through designated special areas, or wahi pana. On the subject of the Public Land Trust and the millions the state owes OHA, Kapu said the agency should adjust its role to provide housing for Native Hawaiians of lesser blood percentage, while Lindsey said all options must remain on the table when negotiating with the state over money she believes it owes the trust, which is worth about $600 million according to Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
Lindsey has said she advocated for $10 million worth of direct emergency assistance to Lahaina fire victims and pushed for overturning the residential ban at Kakaʻako Makai, according to the Hawaii News Now report on the race. Kapu, for his part, has warned against reopening West Maui to visitors too soon in the wake of the disaster, per the same report.
A Rematch Eight Years in the Making
Lindsey and Kapu previously contested the Maui trustee seat in 2018, a race Lindsey won, according to Civil Beat's account of the rematch. Because only two candidates filed for the Maui seat this cycle, the contest skipped a primary and went straight to the general election, a pattern also seen in the Oʻahu trustee race, as reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Beyond Maui and Oʻahu, three at-large OHA seats are also on the ballot this year, according to Ka Wai Ola.
Additional candidate forums are scheduled in the days ahead, including an at-large trustee forum airing Thursday on K5 from 7 to 8 p.m. and again Saturday on KGMB and KHNL. Any registered Hawaiʻi voter, regardless of which island or district they call home, can cast a ballot in the Maui trustee race, per the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' voter guidance.
