Progressive former state Sen. Jill Tokuda won Saturday’s Democratic primary for Hawaii’s open 2nd District, overcoming $1.2 million spent against her by outside groups, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC.
Tokuda defeated state Rep. Patrick Branco and four other candidates, and is the favorite to be in the next Congress with a November race rated Solid Democratic by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. Tokuda had 59 percent of the vote to Branco’s 25 percent with an estimated 93 percent counted. The Associated Press called the race at 3:21 a.m.Eastern time Sunday.
Tokuda had support from Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono and some of the House’s most progressive members donated through their leadership PACs, including Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. The progressive group’s independent expenditure arm spent $179,000 on ads to back her and Jayapal’s leadership PAC spent another $20,000. But spending against her or for Branco totaled $1.2 million and came from such groups as BOLD PAC, Mainstream Democrats PAC, VoteVets and the cryptocurrency-backed group Web3 Forward.
