Democrat Hawaii Rep. Kahele Hasn’t Voted in Person Since January

Hawaii Rep. Kai Kahele has not voted in person in the House since January, congressional voting statistics show.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the House of Representatives adopted temporary emergency rules permitting members to vote by proxy for the first time in its history. The measure was intended to reduce gathering in a tightly confined space amid the height of the pandemic before vaccines were available to the public. But the rules have yet to be lifted, and some members have turned to proxy voting for reasons other than illness or the risk of infection, and there is no mechanism to enforce limits on members’ reasons for voting by proxy.

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According to a data analysis by Honolulu Civil Beat, Kahele appears to be one such member. The freshmen Democrat from Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District has cast just five votes in person this year, all within three days in January. He cast the remaining 120 votes by proxy. According to the analysis, Kahele has voted by proxy more than all but three of his House colleagues this year.

Kahele appears to have spent little time, if any, in Washington since. He did not attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, meetings between Hawaii’s congressional delegation and city officials with the Federal Transit Administration about the future of Honolulu’s rail project, or House Armed Services Committee hearings about the Biden administration’s defense budget request for the coming fiscal year.

The congressman ran for office in 2019 and contrasted himself with then-Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, and argued he would be a “full-time representative in Congress who will show up.”

Kahele has indicated he is exploring a bid for governor of Hawaii, which could be a factor in his increased time in the state.

But Kahele also reportedly continues to work as a Hawaiian Airlines pilot. The job that paid him nearly $120,000 in 2020 prior to his congressional swearing-in, according to his House financial disclosure report. House ethics rules cap lawmakers at a little more than $29,000 in outside income annually. His office told Politico that Kahele “is fully in compliance with Ethics,” and flies “occasional flights to maintain his certification.”

On Tuesday, the lawmaker tweeted a picture of himself at home, writing it was good to come back to his dog “after a long week in the Hawai’i [Air National Guard].”

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He also tweeted a graphic of his “week in review” of his work in Congress but did not specify if the meetings he listed were in-person or virtual.