Why is Hawaii so Democratic?

[walleye26]

I know there are lots of immigrants, native Hawaiians, and Asian Americans that live there, but there’s also a large military presence (which is usually Republican leaning) and a fair amount of retirees. The GOP can’t even win a county, and hasn’t since Lingle in 2006.

Why?

[Хahar 🤔]

Hawaii is about 25% white, and votes accordingly. This is one of those questions that sort of answer themselves.

[Sol]

Like Xahar said you answered the bulk of your own question I think--Hawai'i is very diverse and Democrats do well among Asian-American and Native Hawaiian voters.

White voters in Hawaii also tend to be relatively left-leaning as well, with large countercultural populations and also an unusually large Portuguese community.

[H. Ross Peron]

At least partially its the legacy of the Revolution of 1954 which displaced the entrenched Republican oligarchy in favour of a reformist Democratic government that was heavily backed by the Asian working-class.

[Tintrlvr]

As an add-on, Hawaii is also highly non-religious, and has a much larger non-Christian population than most other states. This ties to its diversity more generally but is worth pointing out as an additional factor.

Working in tourism-adjacent industries, as a very large portion of Hawaiians do (possibly the highest of all states?), is definitely strongly correlated with voting Democratic regardless of other factors as well.