President Barack Obama has won a second term, beating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
As of 7 p.m., Hawaii had yet to close its polling places as long lines of voters continued to wait their turn in the booth. But news networks called the state for Obama promptly at the scheduled closing time of 6 p.m. Within 15 minutes, most of those networks had projected Obama as the victor based on a win in the swing state of Ohio.
At the end of the night, Obama had tallied 303 electoral votes to 206 for Romney with only Florida still undecided. In Hawaii, Obama secured 70 percent of the vote to Romney’s 28 percent, nearly matching his 72 percent to 26 percent margin over John McCain in the islands four years ago.
The Democrat incumbent, who was born and grew up in Honolulu, is a native son of Hawaii, despite the persistence of “birthers” who doubt the authenticity of his birth certificate.
Though he now calls Chicago, Ill., his home, Obama is the only U.S. president to have come from the islands. He still has family and friends who live here, and he has vacationed in Kailua several times as president.
With Obama re-elected, Hawaii is likely to remain in the international spotlight. Had Romney, the Republican, prevailed, however, the attention of the media could have shifted to the Bay State and New Hampshire and San Diego, where the Romney family has homes.
The large Mormon community in Hawaii — centered around Laie and the Brigham Young University Hawaii campus — would have taken tremendous pride in the election of the first president who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Instead, all Hawaii citizens can continue to claim the American president as one of their own.
Punahou Graduate
Obama was born at the Kapiolani hospital on Aug. 4, 1961.
His parents — Ann Dunham from Kansas and Barack Hussein Obama of Kenya — met at the University of Hawaii, where their friends included Neil Abercrombie, the future Hawaii congressman and current governor.
Obama attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until he graduated from high school in 1979. For much of that time he lived with his maternal grandparents near the Punahou campus.
Obama’s mother would later receive a Ph.D. in anthropology. She died in 1995, and her ashes were scattered into the the Pacific Ocean off Koko Head on Oahu. Her father, Stanley Dunham, is buried at Punchbowl National Cemetery.
Obama’s years in Hawaii are detailed in his first book, Dreams of My Father. The future president is frank about his drug use and his experiences with racism.
Pivot to the Asia-Pacific
Before being elected president in 2008, Obama visited the islands a number of times. His half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is a teacher in Hawaii.
Obama also traveled here late in the 2008 campaign to visit his ailing grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died just before the election.
The First Family has vacationed in Kailua during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, and local residents have become used to the presidential motorcade forcing temporary shutdowns of roads and highways.
Typically, the president has kept a low profile while vacationing here, spending much of his time golfing at the Marine Corp Base in Kaneohe.
In November 2011, however, Hawaii were once again in the international spotlight when the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was held in Honolulu.
The APEC meeting rotates annually among members, and in 2011 it was the United States’ turn to host the meetings. Obama selected Honolulu over several West Coast states.
The most significant policy change that came out of APEC was the announcement of a shift in American foreign policy from the Middle East and Europe to the Asia-Pacific region.
The “pivot,” as it is described, is in recognition of the fact that the Asia-Pacific region is where economic and geo-political activity will be concentrated.
Hawaii, home to the United States Pacific Command and a so-called “Geneva of the Pacific,” is expected to play a growing role in the region.
