Former Hawaii Senate President, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa Dies at 74

Colleen Wakako Hanabusa, the Waianae-raised lawmaker who served as Hawaii State Senate president and represented the 1st Congressional District in Washington, died early Friday after a five-month battle with cancer, said Mike Formby, her friend and former chief of staff in the U.S. House. She was 74.

Governor Josh Green ordered U.S. and Hawaiʻi flags to be flown at half-staff at the State Capitol, all state offices and agencies, and Hawaiʻi National Guard facilities, with the flags to remain lowered until sunrise Monday, marking statewide honors for Hanabusa’s decades of public service. "With the passing of former U.S. Representative Colleen Hanabusa, Hawai‘i has lost one of our most talented, committed and accomplished public servants," Green said, noting her "almost seven years in Congress" and work on national defense, natural resources, Native Hawaiian issues and civil rights.

Born in 1951 and raised on the Leeward Coast in Waianae, Hanabusa came from a family that ran an auto service station and went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a law degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law. She began her career as a labor attorney before entering electoral politics.

Hanabusa was elected to the Hawaiʻi State Senate in 1998 and served from 1999 to 2010 representing the Waianae Coast and Leeward Oʻahu. She rose to Senate Majority Leader and, in 2007, became the first woman to serve as president of the Hawaiʻi State Senate; HNN noted she was the first Asian American woman elected as president of a state legislative body. She later served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011–2015 and again from 2016–2019, a span described by state leaders as almost seven years in Congress.

Nationally notable moments in her career included the 2012 death of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye; NBC reported Inouye had sent then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie a hand-signed letter dated the day he died expressing he would like Hanabusa to succeed him, calling it his "last wish." At home, Hanabusa chaired the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board, helped salvage the federal funding agreement for the rail project, rode the rail in 2023 and left the HART board for health reasons last September.

Electoral bids beyond Congress included an unsuccessful run for governor and a 2020 run for Honolulu mayor in which she finished third in the primary and later endorsed Rick Blangiardi, who returned her to the HART board. Colleagues in the state legislature and across Hawaiʻi reacted with condolences; state Senator Jarrett Keohokalole said, "I am profoundly saddened by the loss of former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa. She was a dedicated public servant who devoted much of her life to serving Hawaiʻi. [...]"

Hanabusa is survived by her husband, John Souza, and their dogs Frannie and Pupper, according to family statements. Hawaii leaders and members of the Washington delegation issued tributes in the days after her hospitalization and death, and the lowered flags will remain in place through sunrise Monday as the state acknowledges the passing of a barrier-breaking leader whose record spanned local Waianae institutions to federal office.