Editor’s note: Civil Beat has asked candidates for the primary election to answer a survey about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following comes from Tamlyn (Tam) Hunt, a Democratic candidate for state House District 4, covering Black Sands Beach Subdivision, Hawaiian Paradise Park, Hawaiian Beaches,Kalapana,Koae, Leilani Estates, Nanawale Estates, Pāhoa, Pohoiki and Seaview Estates.

He is running against Democratic incumbent candidate Greggor Ilagan in the Democratic primary. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Zak Wittenhagen in the general election.

Go to Civil Beat’s 2026 Elections Guide for general information, and check out the other candidates on Civil Beatʻs 2026 Hawaiʻi Primary Ballot.

Why are you best suited for the job? And why do you want the job?

I have been a policy lawyer, focused on green energy and good governance, for 25 years. I founded and am director of a local nonprofit, Think BIG (www.thinkbighawaii.org), in 2020, that works on resilience, equity and sustainability issues. I am also a long time board member, and policy committee chair, for the statewide Hawaii EV Association. In my nonprofit activism I have grown sufficiently frustrated with our state Legislature to realize that we need new leadership, and if not me, who?

What is the biggest issue facing your district, and what is the first thing you would do to address it in the first six months after being elected?

The lack of sufficient local food production, good jobs, and affordable housing are all one intertwined set of “wicked” problems that my campaign hopes to address. By focusing on the resilience industries of 1) local food; 2) local power; 3) affordable housing made with mostly locally grown and produced materials, we can create lots of good new jobs and attract financial investments to our region and our island. By focusing on these resilience industries we can not only survive we can THRIVE.

Here’s one question from your constituents: Do you support maintaining a monopoly for interisland shipping?

No! We badly need to end the Young Brothers monopoly and I am studying ways that this can be done. Shipping rates have become far too expensive and the PUC has been far too lax in regulating shipping.

What do you think were the most important bills to come out of the 2026 Legislature? What failed that should have passed? What passed that you wish had failed?

The tax bill (Act 24) that ended the state solar tax credit was horrifically misguided and included drafting errors that made it retroactive. It’s only the governor’s executive order 26-02 that rescued the credits for 2026 and saved a number of in-progress solar projects. A bill that did NOT pass that should have passed was a bill that I wrote, SB 2888, that would have EXPANDED the state solar tax credit as a direct urgent response to the federal tax credit being ended early.

The 2026 session was also overshadowed by an issue of public trust: $35,000 in the brown paper bag given to an “influential” state lawmaker. What do you think the Legislature needs to do going forward to rebuild public confidence in state government?

I think state government needs a statewide commission to study corruption and what can be done to restore trust. It’s obvious, and quantified, that Hawaiʻi is highly corrupt, in overt and covert ways, and we rank around the 10th worst state in various surveys looking at corruption and the perception of corruption. The recent court ruling that House leadership has been meeting in private in contravention of the state constitution was unfortunate, but not surprising. Voters deserve much better!

In recent years, Hawai’i has experienced a series of damaging and dangerous weather events that have exposed weaknesses in our planning, preparation and response. What could you as a lawmaker do to help your district be better prepared?

I am the RESILIENCE candidate! Puna’s greatest vulnerability is isolation—too few evacuation routes and a fragile grid. As a lawmaker, I’d fight for state funding for more evacuation roads and for solar-plus-storage microgrids at schools, fire stations and shelters, so critical sites keep power when the grid goes down. I’d also support more local food and water systems that cut our reliance on imports. Resilience must be built before the storm, not improvised during it.

What would you do in office to address the here and now of climate change? And how would you address the costs to taxpayers, property owners and businesses to adapt?

Local food, local power! is my campaign mantra and the first two pillars of my platform. Local power is by definition zero emissions and we are leading the state already with our solar, on rooftops and ground-mount, and our renewables penetration more generally, at 70% in 2026. KIUC is not far behind and this is a great competition to be having. We are alas behind on the EV transition compared to some other states and to Europe and China. We need to ramp up EV chargers and sales rapidly!

Over 3,000 bills are introduced every session and there is always frantic horsetrading in the final days of session. Do you think there should be a limit on the number of bills introduced to enable more meaningful debate?

A per-member limit could help focus debate, and I’d consider it. But the deeper problem isn’t the number of bills—it’s the process. Most die without a hearing, while real decisions get made in the final days through gut-and-replace and closed-door horsetrading the public never sees. I’d rather fix that: ban last-minute bill-swapping, require real public notice and hearings, and open committee deliberations. Fewer bills won’t help if the few that pass are still rushed in the dark.

Hawaiʻi lawmakers are often in the dark about how much a piece of legislation will cost because the Aloha State is the only one in the nation that doesn’t require a fiscal analysis for bills. Should lawmakers be forced to put a realistic price tag on the legislation they introduce?

Yes! It is absurd that this is not a requirement already. I will strongly support this requirement when I am in the House.

There are no term limits for state legislators in Hawaiʻi, so incumbents tend to win. Would you seek to change that? Why or why not?

Yes, I would support reasonable term limits similar to what Hawaiʻi County already has in place for councilmembers. We need to balance the benefit of institutional and long-term knowledge with the various kinds of corruption and patronage that come from incumbency.

What would you do to help improve the state’s public school system?

Three things. First, pay and house teachers competitively—we lose great educators to the mainland because salaries don’t cover Hawaiʻi’s cost of living. Second, loosen the state DOE’s micromanagement so schools and teachers can actually innovate; we’re the only single statewide district in the country. Third, fix the scandal of the DOE surrendering hundreds of millions in earmarked school-construction funds while Puna’s schools age and overflow. Fund what teachers say works, and let them work.

Hawaiʻi is heavily reliant on tourism. What would you propose to diversify Hawaiʻi’s economy?

Diversify by building what our island needs and can’t cheaply import: local food, local power, and affordable housing made from materials we can grow and process here, such as bamboo. Hawaiʻi imports 85% to 90% of its food and most of its energy—money leaving that could become local jobs. I’d fund and incentivize farms, community solar-plus-storage, and green building using local hemp, bamboo and processed volcanic rock. These industries help each other, jobs at $45,000 to $75,000, and make us shock-proof.

An estimated 60% of Hawaii residents are struggling to get by. It’s a problem that reaches far beyond low-income folks and into the middle class, which is disappearing. What would you do to help?

An AI tsunami is coming that will make these issues far worse. We need to get ahead by dramatically ramping up resilience industries like local food, local power and affordable housing. I measure my wealth and my community’s wealth in solar panels, battery storage and food forests. We need to get moving, fast, to stay ahead of the tsunami.