1 expense for (campaigns) is the mailers. I went from the bottom up, so I learned everything - producing, shooting, promos, writing them, all that stuff. How many kids growing up - you know, locals like me - who go to the public school system get taught the skills the top news anchor gets taught? Not many. Explain a little bit more about what you mean there. You say your news background helped you become a politician. They turned out the most they ever turned out before. I looked at the numbers in the breakdown - I’m not sure if you saw it - but Laie through Punaluu is the reason why we got in.

The third period always goes to the person who has the most heart.Īnd after the third printout came ( on election night) I was just like, wow. The second one to who has the best technique. I was a wrestler, right? The first period goes to the most gifted, the one with God-given talents. In Kahuku (public schools) they used to train us. Brenton Awa defeated Gil Riviere to represent the largest Senate district on Oahu. And so I think that really showed the way we won it. We never paid attention to elections and stuff because there was never really anybody who represented us, who looked or talked or acted like us. I wanted to give the people an opportunity, something that growing up we never had.

And every time I would go out, people would ask me, “Brenton, why don’t you run?”Īnd it took me a while to see that being in the news had given me so many gifts that it made sense to run. But I kept doing stories in my community, my specific community - Kahaluu, Koolauloa. I didn’t know what I was going to do coming out of the news. This Q&A, which was edited for length and clarity, began with Awa explaining why he decided to run for political office. 18, but - like many state senators and representatives - he’s already on the job and working from an office at the Capitol.Ī former news anchor for KITV, he narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Gil Riviere to win the District 23 seat (Kaneohe, Kahaluu thru Laie, Kahuku to Mokuleia, Schofield Barracks and Kunia Camp) in November.Īwa, 36, is the youngest state senator and one of only two Republicans in the 25-member chamber. Brenton Awa won’t officially be sworn in as a Hawaii state senator until Jan.

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