A political action committee Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green launched last year to push back against U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism and support candidates who believe in science-backed medicine raised nearly $500,000 during 2025, according to federal campaign spending records. 

Some of the biggest donors to Green’s Heal America PAC, however, appear to have little to do with health care. They include a California-based real estate investment firm, sports bettors and the car-share company Turo.

Combined these special interests account for almost half of the PAC’s total contributions. Some of them also have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying at the Legislature.

The top donor by far was DHL Mahi Associates, which reported giving $150,000 to Heal America in September. The company is part of ProspectHill Group, a San Francisco-based real estate investment firm led by Gregory Hartman, a major donor to Green’s gubernatorial campaigns. Over the past decade his companies have purchased stakes in the Queen Kapiʻolani Hotel in Waikīkī and the Mauna Lani resort on the Big Island. 

Seven months before donating to Green’s PAC, a state land board endorsed a Mauna Lani request to seek a $275 million mortgage from Goldman Sachs, a sign-off required to proceed with the loan because part of the resort sits on state-leased property. Much of that money, documents show, was dedicated to paying back investors, although about $5 million was set aside for improvements to the resort, including repairing water leaks and increasing energy efficiency.

Green, who is running for reelection and has made no secret of his long-term national aspirations, downplayed the significance of the contribution and said he didn’t want to talk about specific donors to his PAC — or his gubernatorial campaign. Many of his contributors, he said, have come to know him over 20-plus years in public office and are “people who have supported me and believe in me.” 

The only thing Green said about DHL Mahi Associates is that he suspects they were fans of his work during the Covid pandemic when, as lieutenant governor, he helped reopen the state to tourism so that the state’s economy wouldn’t collapse. .

“Anyone who’s investing in this PAC is really investing in my leadership abilities going forward on health care,” Green said. “Supporting the Heal America PAC is about a better health care system for our country.”

Hartman did not return a request for comment. 

Other major contributions to Green’s PAC came from the Sports Betting Alliance, which represents groups such as BetMGM, DraftKings and Fanduel; Anthony Marnell, CEO and president of Marnell Companie, a casino and gaming firm; and the car sharing company Turo. Combined, those three donors gave Heal America $65,000. 

More broadly, state ethics disclosures show that the Sports Betting Alliance and Turo together spent more than $150,000 on Hawaiʻi lobbying efforts in 2025. The Sports Betting Alliance reported that it supported bills to legalize sports wagering in Hawaiʻi while Turo opposed legislation targeting hidden fees in car rentals. Just last week a House panel approved legislation, House Bill 2570, that aims to legalize sports betting.

There’s also been crossover between the donations to Green’s PAC and the contributions he’s received while vying for a second term as governor. For instance, within two days of Marnell’s $20,000 donation, state campaign spending data shows three of his top executives contributed $16,000 to Green’s gubernatorial campaign.

Colin Moore, a political scientist at the University of Hawaiʻi, said he would not be surprised if Green’s PAC has become another conduit for organizations and individuals to donate money to the governor in hopes of furthering their own economic or policy goals. Truly “pure donations” are rare, he said, and large-scale fundraising for a serious national figure almost always involves special interests seeking influence or access.

“For better or worse this is how we do politics in this country today,” Moore said. “I think it’s reasonable to assume that anyone who’s giving has an angle.”

PAC for the Future

Green has cast the Heal America PAC as an extension of his work as a physician-governor, and said it is part of his greater ambition to be a leading voice on national health policy now and in the future. 

He’s been an outspoken critic of Kennedy and his role in perpetuating false and misleading narratives around vaccines. Last year, Green traveled to Washington to speak with lawmakers about Kennedy’s role in a measles outbreak in Samoa and testified before Congress about Covid restrictions he helped implement in Hawaiʻi that he says reduced the spread of the virus and saved lives while also opening up the economy to tourists. 

Both trips were paid for not by the PAC but by state taxpayers, leading to some criticism that Green was blurring the line between work on behalf of the state and political advocacy. In some other cases, the governor has paid for his own trips out of pocket, or relied on foundations. 

In total, the Heal America PAC reported raising $488,000 in 2025 while spending about $204,000, mostly on start-up costs and consultants, including Democratic fundraiser Lori LaFave, who Green said is running the PAC’s day-to-day operations.

Green’s PAC has received major contributions from other prominent figures, including Jay Shidler, a Hawaiʻi-based investor and philanthropist who’s the namesake of the University of Hawaiʻi business school; Paul Yonamine, chairman emeritus of Central Pacific Bank, who’s working with Green to try to bring liquefied natural gas to the islands; and Eric Green, a conflict resolution specialist in Massachusetts who is also the governor’s uncle.

Green stressed that despite the money coming in, his PAC is still “very tiny” and “in its infancy,” especially when compared to large national PACs that haul in millions of dollars. Even his gubernatorial campaign outpaced the PAC by a more than 2 to 1 margin. 

The plan for 2026, he said, is for Heal America PAC to give many small contributions to candidates with backgrounds in health care and science who support vaccinations, robust cancer research and increased access to health care. He seeks to expand the PAC’s reach in upcoming election cycles, including beyond the next presidential election in 2028, so that he can use it as a platform to push his own policy agenda. .

“My hope is that I’m a health care leader after I’ve served as governor,” Green said. “That’s really my expectation, and so that’s what this is about.”