Aloha Reader,

This week: a hard look at the primary, a dark-money accusation against Jarrett, and a Palantir protest we need your energy for.

In this issue

• The primary, honestly
• Accusations about Jarrett and dark money
• Protest the surveillance state: show up at Palantir
• On our radar

Across the state, so many of you knocked on doors, made calls, wrote postcards, and showed up for candidates you believed in — that work mattered, and we see it.

The primary, honestly

Here's the honest picture: our theory of yesterday's primary was that dark money and turnout would decide it. Dark money showed up. Turnout didn't — at least not enough to change the status quo.

We applaud Jarrett and Della for their campaigns, and we're proud to have endorsed them. We look forward to supporting what comes next for both of them. In the general election, we'll back the Democratic nominees.

Clearly, we have a lot of work ahead to contest apathy. According to the Office of Elections Voting Report, turnout fell to 28.3%. That is a new low since statehood, unless there is a sudden revision. In a year when we're fighting to stop an authoritarian breakthrough, we should have seen much stronger turnout. (In 2018, it was 38.6%.)

For now, we'll take a breather, regroup, and think about how to come back stronger next time. Thank you, again, for everything you put into this primary election.

In the coming days, our attention turns to flipping the US Congress blue — the House of Representatives and the US Senate. G. Elliott Morris has as clear a read on this as anyone. We recommend his interview with Paul Krugman.

Accusations about Jarrett and dark money

A Civil Beat article reported that the super PAC Future Progress spent $75,000 supporting Jarrett Keohokalole's campaign. Super PACs exist only because of the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United. They cannot coordinate with candidates or campaigns, and no one has alleged illegal coordination. Jarrett denied any knowledge of the expenditure.

This was a boneheaded move by the super PAC and possibly by its main donor, the International Union of Operating Engineers. Jarrett cosponsored SB 2471, now Act 11, precisely to ban this kind of super PAC activity starting next year. Ed Case quickly seized on the news to accuse Jarrett of hypocrisy across social media, campaign texts, and email.

IHSN is proud to have endorsed Jarrett Keohokalole. We take him at his word, and we think he has the integrity to continue to fight dark money with us.

Protest the surveillance state: show up at Palantir

We're concerned about the many tentacles of a growing surveillance state — one where the federal government can collect and access our private data with little oversight. This started taking shape with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in early 2025.

This has been on our radar for a while, but now it's time to act. Palantir — the CIA-contractor-turned-Homeland-Security-vendor — is recruiting staff in Honolulu. We object to Palantir mining Hawaiʻi residents' data on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

This one's Oʻahu-specific, but it matters for all of us — wherever you are, send some good energy to our Honolulu ʻohana as they show up for this. We're joining ACLU Hawaiʻi and J20+ to protest Palantir's presence here.

We want them out of Hawaiʻi. Register here​

When: Monday, August 10, 2026, 12:00–1:00 PM HST
​Where: Pacific Guardian Center, Mauka Tower, 737 Bishop Street, Honolulu

On our radar

• ​Civil Beat reports that Hawaii's 27 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., are expected home later this month. We hope that Governor Green will ensure they come back on time.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economist and Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu has a new book launching Tuesday, What Happened to Liberal Democracy? It's a great question, well worth his global, economic perspective. Joyce Vance interviewed him recently about it.
• Speaking of books, we're now reading How Fascism Works by University of Toronto philosopher Jason Stanley. We learned about it from Lecture 3 of Timothy Snyder's course, Hitler, Stalin, and Us — on the question of what fascism actually is. We thought we knew. We didn't.

We may not have won our fights in this primary, but we can't give up — the loss shows we need to continue and increase our efforts. The general election is only three months away, and it's our best hope to slow the Trump administration's assault on our democracy. For now, take a breath and rest up. Talk soon 🌺.

Aloha,

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