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Rep. Kaialiʻi Kahele

Former Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd District

pronounced ky // kah-HEL-ay


Kahele was the representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 2021 to 2022.

Alleged misconduct & resolution

In 2022, Kahele was accused of misusing official resources for campaign or political social media purposes or used campaign funds to defray official expenses. In August 2022, the Office of Congressional Ethics recommended further review by the House Committee on Ethics. In November 2022, the House Committee on Ethics published the Office of Congressional Ethics Report and Findings and the member's response.

Aug. 26, 2022 Office of Congressional Ethics recommended further review by the House Committee on Ethics
Nov. 28, 2022 House Committee on Ethics published the Office of Congressional Ethics Report and Findings and the member's response
Photo of Rep. Kaialiʻi Kahele [D-HI2, 2021-2022]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Kahele.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Kahele is shown as a purple triangle in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2022 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Kahele sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Dec 27, 2022. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Kahele was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:

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Does 3 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Kahele sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (46%) Agriculture and Food (38%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (15%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Kahele recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Kahele voted Yea

Passed 360/64 on Sep 22, 2022.

Kahele voted Yea

Kahele voted Yea

Missed Votes

From Jan 2021 to Dec 2022, Kahele missed 8 of 998 roll call votes, which is 0.8%. This is better than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2022. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: