The biggest open secret at the State Capitol is that Senate Vice President Michelle Kidani is ill and could soon be leaving the Senate.

Privately, those who have been in meetings with her say she often loses her train of thought. Last session, she became confused while presiding over a Senate floor session in President Ron Kouchi’s absence. She now has a helper who guides her around the Capitol and accompanies her to hearings.

Civil Beat talked to more than a dozen lawmakers, staff and past and current top officials who have frequent interaction with Kidani. Several told Civil Beat the 77-year-old lawmaker is suffering from dementia and has been under a doctor’s care.

In a review of videos of the 2025 session, Civil Beat identified more than a half-dozen where Kidani appeared confused and had to be helped by colleagues and staff.

Neither Kidani nor Kouchi responded to a request to discuss Kidani’s health.

People Civil Beat talked to said Kidani intended to run for reelection when her term is up in 2028, although political advisors already are circulating names of possible replacements.

But on Monday, after Civil Beat sent emails to Kidani and Kouchi letting them know this story was in the works and seeking interviews, sources said an announcement about Kidani retiring could come as early as this week.

If Kidani retired by May 8, the last day of session, Gov. Josh Green likely would make an interim appointment. A special election to fill the District 18 seat — which represents Mililani Town, Waipi‘o Gentry, Crestview, Waikele parts of Waipahu, Village Park and Royal Kunia — might then coincide with the August primary election.

A Change In Committee Chairs

Some House members have grumbled that their education bills passed by the full House and sent to the Senate were not given full consideration last session by Kidani, who had chaired the Senate Education Committee since 2015. More recently, Vice Chair Donna Kim sometimes took the lead in controlling hearing and informational briefing agendas and bill negotiations in conference committee.

Last session, Kidani’s growing confusion was becoming apparent to more people as she publicly made mistakes.

For example, in a Feb. 5, 2025 hearing of the education committee, Kim and a staffer appear to correct Kidani as she was reading from the day’s agenda. At one point Kim, sitting next to Kidani, looked over at what Kidani was reading, then compared it to her own notes. Then a staff member appears to help Kidani find the right place in her notes.

“Oops. Mistake. Sorry,” Kidani said with a chuckle as she and Kim exchanged smiles and laughs. Kidani later joked, “Did I shake up the Department of Education?”

People also point to the Feb. 19, 2025 floor session when Kidani — filling in for Kouchi — appeared to make an error just after a vote concluded, which can be seen at around the 4:45 mark in the video recording. Senate Clerk Carol Taniguchi appears to correct Kidani on the order of Senate business, two times. And the Senate went into recess twice, apparently to straighten things out off camera.

The questions about Kidani gained steam in late December, when her Education Committee was combined with Kim’s Higher Education Committee and Kim was given the chairmanship. Kidani was bumped to the vice chair slot.

A statement from the Senate at the time said the switch to combine the two committees was necessary due to “current and impending federal budgetary cuts” to the Department of Education and the University of Hawaiʻi.

The House, however, retains separate committees for K-12 and higher ed, both of which are enormous financial and bureaucratic components of state operations that are constantly the subject of legislative scrutiny.

Kidani misses few floor hearings and sessions but she has been noticeably quiet recently. On Friday, she sat silently as Kim and GOP Sen. Samantha DeCorte excoriated School Superintendent Keith Hayashi and Board of Education Chair Roy Takumi for failing to fully account for spending on capital improvement projects. Kidani left the meeting before it was over and did not return.

Kim, who has already held several agenda-filled informational and budget briefings this year, told Hayashi and Takumi at the end of the briefing that they could expect much more interrogation from the committee going forward.

Kidani’s silence during the tense hearing — one in which DeCorte accused the top Department of Education and Board of Education officials of failing to do their jobs — only underscored the loss of Kidani’s experience from a decade of chairing the Education Committee.

Kidani has accomplished much since first taking office in 2008, including Act 242 in 2022 that mandates Title IX reporting by the DOE, charter schools and UH to the Legislature on the number and types of sex-based discrimination and other information covered by the civil rights law. Act 242 also set aside funds for the DOE to provide related equity training.

Last week, the Women’s Legislative Caucus dedicated its 2026 package of bills to Kidani, praising her for her “strong commitment to education, equity, and community advocacy.” She also is listed as the lead author of one of the caucus’s five priorities, Senate Bill 2844, which would make it a criminal offense to disclose intimate or private images without consent.

Several people at the Capitol say Kidani had wanted to stay in office until her term ends in 2028. Late last year, she even scheduled a reelection fundraiser.

But all that appears to have changed and a decision on her political future could come later this week.

Many local Democrats are all too aware of what happened with their party nationally after former President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance in the 2024 presidential election with Donald Trump. Biden soon withdrew, and Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump in November.

Dianne Feinstein, the late U.S. senator from California who died in office in 2023 at 90, is another recent example of an important politician who was criticized for staying in their seat too long. While a senator of major accomplishments, Feinstein’s health visibly declined in her later years, according to news reports, and she often became confused when answering questions or speaking publicly.