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2025 Hawaii legislative session
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2026 →
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| 2025 Hawaii legislative session |
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| General information |
| Scheduled session start: January 15, 2025 Scheduled session end: May 2, 2025 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Ronald Kouchi (D) House Speaker |
| 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 was scheduled to convene on January 15 and adjourn on May 2.
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.
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.
Legislation trackers
- See also: Legislation Trackers
Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:
Standing legislative committees
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
- Economic Development, Tourism, and Technology 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, and Veterans Committee
- Culture, Arts, and International Affairs Committee
- Economic Development Committee
- Energy and Environmental Protection Committee
- Finance Committee
- Government Reform Committee
- Health, Human Services, and Homelessness Committee
- Higher Education and Technology Committee
- House Education Committee
- House Housing Committee
- House Transportation Committee
- Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee
- Labor & Tourism Committee
- Legislative Management Committee
- Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Committee
- Water and Land 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 by which the Hawaii Constitution can be amended:
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
A two-thirds (66.67%) 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
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 |
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 |
Analysis
Adopted legislation, 2020-2024
- See also: The State Legislative Decade - Hawaii
In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.
See also
| Elections | Hawaii State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
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External links
Footnotes
