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2025 Hawaii legislative session

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2025 Hawaii legislative session
← 2024 2026 →

General information
Scheduled session start: January 15, 2025 Scheduled session end: May 1, 2025
Leadership
Senate President Ronald Kouchi (D) House Speaker Nadine Nakamura (D) Majority Leader Senate: Dru Kanuha (D) House: Sean Quinlan (D) Minority Leader Senate: Brenton Awa (R) House: Lauren Matsumoto (R)
Elections
Next Election: November 3, 2026 Last Election: November 5, 2024
Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions

In 2025, the Hawaii State Legislature is scheduled to convene on January 15 and adjourn on May 1.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Democrats won a 22-3 majority in the Senate and a 42-9 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Democratic state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, Hawaii was one of seven state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:

Democrats held a majority in the Hawaii state House and state Senate.

Hawaii was one of 15 Democratic state government trifectas.

Hawaii's governor was Democrat Joshua Green.

Leadership in 2025

Hawaii State Senate

Senate president: Ronald Kouchi (D)
Majority leader: Dru Kanuha (D)
Minority leader: Brenton Awa (R)

Hawaii House of Representatives

Speaker of the House: Nadine Nakamura (D)
Majority leader: Sean Quinlan (D)
Minority leader: Lauren Matsumoto (R)

Partisan control in 2025

See also: State government trifectas

Hawaii was one of 15 Democratic state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

Hawaii was also one of seven state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Hawaii State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.

Hawaii State Senate

Party	As of January 2025
	Democratic Party	22
	Republican Party	3
Total	25

Hawaii House of Representatives

Party	As of January 2025
	Democratic Party	42
	Republican Party	9
Total	51

Regular session

The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

Standing legislative committees

See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Hawaii state government

A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 35 standing committees in Hawaii's state government, including 16 state Senate committees and 19 state House committees.

Senate committees

Agriculture and Environment Committee
Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee
Committee on Labor and Technology
Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism Committee
Government Operations Committee
Hawaiian Affairs Committee
Higher Education Committee
Human Services Committee
Judiciary Committee
Labor, Culture and the Arts Committee
Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs Committee
Senate Education Committee
Senate Housing Committee
Senate Transportation Committee
Water and Land Committee
Ways and Means Committee

House committees

Agriculture Committee
Committee on Labor and Government Operations
Consumer Protection & Commerce Committee
Corrections, Military, & Veterans Committee
Culture, Arts, & International Affairs Committee
Economic Development Committee
Energy & Environmental Protection Committee
Finance Committee
Government Reform Committee
Health, Human Services, & Homelessness Committee
Higher Education & Technology Committee
House Education Committee
House Housing Committee
House Transportation Committee
Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee
Labor & Tourism Committee
Legislative Management Committee
Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Committee
Water, Land, & Hawaiian Affairs Committee

Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

The methods in which the Hawaii Constitution can be amended:

See also: Article XVII of the Hawaii Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Hawaii

The Hawaii Constitution provides two mechanisms for amending the state's constitution— a legislative process and a state constitutional convention. Hawaii requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

Legislature

See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

A two-thirds (66.67%) vote vote is required during one legislative session or a simple majority vote in two successive legislative sessions for the Hawaii State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 35 votes in the Hawaii House of Representatives and 17 votes in the Hawaii State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

Convention

See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

According to Section 2 of Article XVII of the Hawaii Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot after a period of nine years. Hawaii is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

State	Interval	Last question on the ballot	Next question on the ballot
Hawaii	10 years	2018	2028

2026 measures:

See also: 2026 ballot measures

Certified:

The following measures were certified for the ballot.

No measures to list

2025 measures:

Below is a list of measures that were referred to the 2025 ballot by the legislature.

See also: 2025 ballot measures

Certified:

The following measures were certified for the ballot.

No measures to list

Historical partisan control

The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Hawaii.

Hawaii Party Control: 1992-2025
Twenty-six years of Democratic trifectas • No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Governor	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
House	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

Historical Senate control

Democrats won control of the Hawaii State Senate in 1962. In 2024, they won a 22-3 majority.

The table below shows the partisan history of the Hawaii Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

Hawaii State Senate election results: 1992-2024

Year	'92	'94	'96	'98	'00	'02	'04	'06	'08	'10	'12	'14	'16	'18	'20	'22	'24
Democrats	22	23	23	23	22	20	20	20	23	24	24	24	25	24	24	23	22
Republicans	3	2	2	2	3	5	5	5	2	1	1	1	0	1	1	2	3

Before 1992

Republicans controlled the Hawaii Senate from 1959 to 1962, the year Democrats gained control of the chamber.

Historical House control

Democrats have controlled the Hawaii House of Representatives since 1959, the year it achieved statehood. In 2024, they won a 42-9 majority.

The table below shows the partisan history of the Hawaii House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

Hawaii House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

Year	'92	'94	'96	'98	'00	'02	'04	'06	'08	'10	'12	'14	'16	'18	'20	'22	'24
Democrats	47	44	39	39	32	36	41	43	45	43	44	43	45	46	47	45	42
Republicans	4	7	12	12	19	15	10	8	6	8	7	8	6	5	4	6	9

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2025	State legislative elections (2025) • State legislative special elections (2025) • Primary dates and filing requirements • 2025 Session Dates

2024	State legislative elections (2024) • State legislative special elections (2024) • Primary dates and filing requirements • 2024 Session Dates

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Features of state legislatures	How vacancies are filled in state legislatures • States with a full-time legislature • State legislatures with term limits • Comparison of state legislative salaries • When state legislators assume office after a general election • Population represented by state legislators • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures • State legislative sessions • Resign-to-run law • State legislature candidate requirements by state • Official names of state legislatures • State legislative chambers that use multi-member districts • Factors Affecting Competitiveness in State Legislative Elections

State senates	Length of terms of state senators • State senators • Partisan composition of state senates • State senators sorted by year first elected

State houses	Length of terms of state representatives • State representatives • Partisan composition of state houses • State representatives sorted by year first elected

Leadership positions	President of the Senate • President Pro Tempore • Senate Majority Leader • Senate Minority Leader • House Majority Leader • House Minority Leader • State Speaker of the House

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