Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
John Clark III (Hawaii)
John Clark III (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Hawaii House of Representatives to represent District 41. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Clark completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
John Clark III served in the U.S. Navy from 1986 to 2018. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Memphis in 1993 and a graduate degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2003. His career experience includes working as a community advocate. He has been affiliated with the Ewa Neighborhood Board.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Hawaii House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Hawaii House of Representatives District 41
Incumbent David Alcos defeated John Clark III in the general election for Hawaii House of Representatives District 41 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | David Alcos (R) | 58.8 | 5,474 |
 | John Clark III (D)  | 41.2 | 3,840 | |
| Total votes: 9,314 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Hawaii House of Representatives District 41
John Clark III advanced from the Democratic primary for Hawaii House of Representatives District 41 on August 10, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Clark III | 100.0 | 1,452 |
| Total votes: 1,452 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Hawaii House of Representatives District 41
Incumbent David Alcos advanced from the Republican primary for Hawaii House of Representatives District 41 on August 10, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | David Alcos | 100.0 | 1,183 |
| Total votes: 1,183 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Clark in this election.
2020
See also: Hawaii State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Hawaii State Senate District 19
Incumbent Kurt Fevella defeated Rida Cabanilla in the general election for Hawaii State Senate District 19 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Kurt Fevella (R) | 58.3 | 12,345 |
 | Rida Cabanilla (D) | 41.7 | 8,813 | |
| Total votes: 21,158 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Hawaii State Senate District 19
Rida Cabanilla defeated John Clark III in the Democratic primary for Hawaii State Senate District 19 on August 8, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rida Cabanilla | 63.0 | 4,553 |
| John Clark III | 37.0 | 2,677 | |
| Total votes: 7,230 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Hawaii State Senate District 19
Incumbent Kurt Fevella advanced from the Republican primary for Hawaii State Senate District 19 on August 8, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kurt Fevella | 100.0 | 4,310 |
| Total votes: 4,310 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Clark III completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Clark's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I believe change is inevitable. And, because we know change is definitely going to occur, I believe it is our duty, our kuleana, to help shape the future… NOW.
My top issues are Education, Economics, and the Environment.
In addition to being a veteran, I have a Bachelor of Business degree, an MBA in Acquisition and Contracts Management, and I bring 30 years of experience in business management and community service.
In addition to serving in OIF in 2004… I have lived in or worked in Japan, Germany, Guam, Australia, the Philippines, and I have visited almost every state in our Nation.
Throughout my three decades of experience, I have learned how to work effectively as a team.
Working alongside people from every ethnic group, and every educational and economic background, I learned that every perspective matters, not just my own personal view.
I have a trademarked mantra for life, "Accept. Adapt. Achieve."®
The question is: WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE?
Here’s what I want to achieve for our communities:
1. Better educational facilities and opportunities.
2. Better economic plans for the Ewa/Kapolei area.
3. Better protection for our environment, including our urban and suburban lifestyles.- Education matters!
I began serving on the Ewa Neighborhood Board in 2015, where my first official act was to become Education Chairperson.
While working with the Department of Education and our local legislators, I helped craft legislation that eventually led to the installation of A/C in our schools in Ewa Beach.
Likewise, I worked with everyday residents to obtain funding to get upgraded athletic facilities at JCHS.
Today, we have a new football, track, and softball field at JCHS.
In 2009, I founded a nonprofit organization that helps teenagers develop lifelong leadership skills.
I believe it is my responsibility to help build a culture of trust while making a difference in the lives of everyone in our community. - Economics matter! As a State Representative, it is my duty to collaborate with colleagues and assist them in their respective efforts. Community and state-wide issues include: 1. Facilitating an increase in the number of affordable housing units 2. Increasing efforts to prepare for the effects of climate change 3. Ensuring developers plan and proceed in accordance with community input and expectations 4. Preparation for natural disasters 5. Upgrading our physical infrastructure 6. Creating long-term solutions for addressing the houseless population 7. Finding ways to leverage the tourism industry in a manner that has not previously existed 8. I plan to vigorously represent the ‘Ewa Plain, while keeping an eye toward state issues
- Our Environment matters! I’d like to initiate a more proactive approach to protecting our environment, including protection for the Aina and our precious water, as well as creating safer communities for pedestrians, bikers, and drivers.
The best way to increase voter curiosity and interest is to sincerely listen to community interests and desires – and then give our residents a return on their investment of attention and time
Additionally, one of my all-time favorite quotes is from Dr. Martin Luther King:
"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
My faith is an especially important part of who I am, what I do, and how I view the world.
Of note: Throughout my three decades of experience, I have learned how to work effectively as a team... as a follower, leader, and collaborator.
In that book, the mantra Accept. Adapt. Achieve. ® is discussed in detail.
More specifically…
Forgive.
Whatever it is or was, let it go. For every minute we squander on finding fault, brandishing blame, and rehashing the same bad memory, we lose two additional minutes. We lose the first minute by scraping the bottom of the bad-memory barrel, and we also lose a second minute by way of an “opportunity cost.”
Focus.
When we refuse to forgive E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, we remain bogged down in the powerful past (a past made powerful only by us). When we have forgiven what was, we are absolutely, totally, unequivocally free to focus on THIS year, THIS day, THIS moment in time. And when we focus on today, we become the most powerful person in the world (when it comes to us).
Find.
Quite simply… once we have forgiven all, we can focus on what really matters. And after we have done this, not only will we find our path to passion, power, and ponies in our lives; but those things will somehow, someway, magically find US.
Accept.
What has happened will never change. I must accept it; embrace it; see it as a milepost in my life. I realize that some terrible things have happened in our lives. But in reality, I alone have the choice to see that event as an asset or a liability.
Adapt.
Perhaps Charles Darwin said it best when he said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." It is our high degree of adaptability, sprinkled with a reservoir of perseverance that will create the greatest impact on whether we leap to the last step.
“Aloha” means mutual regard and affection and extends warmth in caring with no obligation in return. “Aloha” is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence. “Aloha” means to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen and to know the unknowable.
In exercising their power on behalf of the people and in fulfillment of their responsibilities, obligations and service to the people, the legislature, governor, lieutenant governor, executive officers of each department, the chief justice, associate justices, and judges of the appellate, circuit, and district courts may contemplate and reside with the life force and give consideration to the “Aloha Spirit.”
As such, Hawaii is a special place, and I sincerely believe we have a special duty to live Aloha.
I often ask friends, family, and community leaders, “Where can one find Aloha?”
The answer is…
With a focused mission to align people, processes, and projects, I have dedicated my life's work to enhancing workplace education, fostering cultural understanding, and amplifying organizational purpose. My journey includes earning an MBA in Acquisition and Contract Management from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Beyond the confines of the corporate and military realms, I founded TeenBuilding USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering high-school students with tools for academic success and self-driven opportunities.
Serving initially as Executive Director, and then as President Emeritus, I directed all facets of nonprofit management, with a focus on educational program development. As a naturally curious content creator, I have thoroughly enjoyed researching, budgeting, and orchestrating curriculum initiatives spanning Adolescent Self-Development, Youth Change Management, Teenage Personal Accountability, and Young-Adult Leadership Development.
Amidst a distinguished naval career culminating in retirement as a Navy Commander, my commitment to community service remains steadfast.
Since 2015, I've served on the Ewa Neighborhood Board, advocating for educational initiatives as the Education Committee Chairperson and periodically as Vice Chairperson.
I have followed talented leaders and led hard-working teams of people across the political, cultural, social, and economic spectrum… all while working for Democratic and Republican presidents in their role as Commander-in-Chief.
Most importantly, my diverse travels, career military service, exposure to political systems outside of Hawaii, and our shared community experiences here in Hawaii have prepared me for a mission to listen to people across the political, cultural, social, and economic spectrum.
In my service on Community Councils, various organizational boards, and the Ewa Neighborhood Board, I have learned that, despite partisan political politics “Together, we can make our community better.”
As a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, author of several books, and a small-business owner, I am also blessed with an ability to be innovative when required.
Today, more than ever, we need knowledgeable, creative, and experienced leadership.
Part of the leadership of which I speak includes the ability to exchange ideas, concepts and visions with other innovative, competent, and ETHICAL leaders. I can’t solve problems all by myself, but I promise to give my all as we seek solutions for ongoing and emerging challenges.
As we navigate our way through challenging times, we should have a flexible vision and an associated plan that is well publicized.
In the overall scheme of things, with the right vision, phases, and steps, like a mighty computer, we can solve any challenge, literally one step at a time.
And it begins with optimism, hope, and a vision.
I have always been fascinated by leaders and organizations who make the greatest impact within their organizational culture and within the “real” world — people who “get it.”
Always.
But with regard to an "historical" event, I can vividly reccall the day President Ronald Reagan was shot during an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981.
I was in middle school... at track practice.
It was an interesting time for me, primarily because I was just old enough to understand two things:
1. The assassination attempt was a "big deal"; and
I worked at McDonalds while moonlighting with my own small business as a DJ.
I loved both jobs, primarily because I learned how to work as a team while at McDonalds, and I learned to appreciate all types of music as my DJ business began to flourish.
With the time difference (between Hawaiian Standard Time and Eastern Standard Time), we would often talk on the phone as we drove to and from our respective places; him from home to work, and me from work to home.
Losing a loved one is always hard.
Why did the author get married?
Answer:
Hawaii is unique with a state-wide education department. As such, there is an additional complexity associated with a geographically dispersed organization that operates with de-centralized decision-making. Unfortunately, this unique structure minimizes accountability, in my opinion.
However, monies from Political Action Committees and similar organizations have infiltrated politics forever.
Ironically, the ironically named court case “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission” ultimately had the effect of disenfranchising millions and millions of Americans by simply mitigating the age-old adage of “one person; one vote.”
I say it’s ironic because the case did nothing to unite the citizens of the United States of America, in my opinion.
Instead, it opened the floodgates of spending by corporate entities.
And in this country, it’s important to remember that corporations have almost as many rights and privileges as real humans, with a few glaring distinctions:
1. Corporations can get fined, but the corporate entity will never go to jail.
2. If you and I break the law, you can be assured jail time is part of the equation.
3. Corporations, on average, have a far less tax rate that you, he, she, and me.
A citizen’s initiative process would be subject to big-dollar marketing and campaigns.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2020
John Clark III did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Hawaii House of Representatives District 41 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 12, 2024
