State Rep. Bob McDermott withdraws from 2018 Governor’s Race

News Release from Rep Bob McDermott, August 29, 2017

Today Representative Bob McDermott (R) of Ewa Beach, House District 40, has formally withdrawn from the 2018 Governor’s race.  

McDermott said that, after talking to my family, friends, and members of the Ewa Beach community, the general consensus was that my voice was still needed to represent the residents of West Oahu. Our growing community has many needs, and most folks felt I should stay put and continue fighting on their behalf rather than taking a long shot run at the top job. So I will listen and continue the fight for resources and infrastructure on their behalf.

McDermott noted that Campbell High School has finally obtained 39 million dollars for a state of the art High tech classroom building and learning center; it was the result of a long hard fight for the funds, with the students ultimately being the winners. Transportation and educational infrastructure issues shall be top of McDermott’s agenda for the next several years.  

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Rep Andria Tupola for Governor?

SA: State Rep. Andria Tupola (R, Kalailoa-Ko Olina-Maili) declined to say if she is the Republican that prompted McDermott’s decision, but said she recently filed a new organizational report with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission that indicates she plans to run for governor.

“I filed the necessary paperwork for me to begin the process of having open and honest conversations with people throughout Hawaii about what can be done to improve our state, and how I can help play a larger role in that effort,” said Tupola, 36. “I’m spending the next several weeks gathering input from people, mobilizing my campaign and I look forward to giving you more comments in the coming days.”

Tupola is one of five Republicans in the 51-member state House. She was first elected in 2014, and is the House minority leader.

McDermott, 54, said he mapped out a “very, very narrow path” to victory in the governor’s race, but that plan assumed that he would not have a contested Republican primary. When he learned that would not be the case, he said he decided to pull out of the race.

“For a two-party system, it doesn’t serve anybody’s purposes to cannibalize ourselves,” said McDermott, (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point)….

read … Tupola for Governor