Thursday, January 26, 2023

Companion Super Tuesday Bill Introduced in Hawaii House

Another bill to establish a presidential primary in Hawaii and schedule it for Super Tuesday in 2024 has been introduced in the state House in the Aloha state. 

Speaker of the House, Rep. Scott Saiki (D-25th, Ala Moana), filed HB 1485, legislation with the same language as SB 1005. That this bill has the backing of the speaker says something about how seriously the legislature is likely approaching legislation to shift from caucuses to using a primary for allocating national convention delegates in the presidential nomination process. It is not a sure thing, in other words, but has more robust support than the similar efforts in 2018.

But again, Hawaii is small enough, Democratic enough and far enough away from the mainland that it will be difficult to garner much attention from presidential candidates anyway. But even lost in a sea of more delegate-rich contests on Super Tuesday, a primary there would at least insure that more Hawaiians from both major parties have the opportunity to weigh in with their presidential preferences before the race is (likely to be) effectively over in a May position. Depending on how these two bills progress (and another proposing a May primary), however, these are the sorts of ideas that the Hawaii legislature will consider when scrutinizing these two bills. 


--
This legislation has been added to the updated 2024 presidential primary calendar


No comments: