Rep. Ed Case (D-HI), a longtime pro-Israel moderate in the House, is facing his first serious primary challenge in years from state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, arguing — as other insurgent Democrats around the country have — that the district needs a new generation of leadership.

Case, 73, has long been a political institution in Hawaii. He has represented the 1st Congressional District in the heart of Honolulu since 2019, after previously serving the state’s 2nd District — which covers all areas outside of Honolulu — from 2002 to 2007, following several years in the Statehouse. He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate before making his return to the House.

As one of the most moderate Democrats in the chamber — siding at times against the Biden administration and with Republicans — he has been something of an unusual fit for the strongly Democratic district.

Hawaii’s primary is set for Aug. 8.

Keohokalole’s campaign site makes little mention of Middle East policy, broadly calling for “reimagining the United States’ role on the world stage as a global peace leader by working to end unnecessary and costly conflicts, including opposing escalation toward war with Iran, and strengthening congressional oversight over military action and executive war powers.”

But the state senator, who is 42, said in late 2025 he supported efforts led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to stop U.S. military sales to Israel, arguing that the small size of Gaza “all but guarantees that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s campaign of ‘targeted’ airstrikes will kill innocent adults, children, and infants. Hamas was wrong. So is this.”

Keohokalole said Israel has an inherent right to defend its sovereign territory “but for this to keep going the way it’s going, I think it reflects poorly on everyone involved in the campaign there, and this is going to persist for decades. People are not going to forget this, and I don’t think we should be associated with the carnage.”

He has also called out Case for receiving support from AIPAC.

But Colin Moore, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii, said that the subject has not been a central issue on the campaign to the extent that it has been in other recent Democratic primaries. “Maybe at the margins, but it’s not been an issue that either campaign has made central,” Moore said.

Case, at the beginning of the cycle, faced another challenge as well from a state representative, but that candidate dropped out of the race, consolidating the anti-Case vote, Moore explained.

Moore said that Keohokalole has been stepping up his outreach, making a strong push on social media and garnering national media attention. “It’s still likely that Ed Case will win, but I think it will be closer than I expected it to be a couple of months ago,” Moore said.

Limited polling has made it difficult to assess the state of the race, however. Case maintains a significant fundraising advantage, with $890,000 on hand to Keohokalole’s $252,000 as of the end of March.

“Ed Case has always been the most vulnerable of the four members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation,” Moore continued. “He’s … somewhat of an unusual figure to represent urban Honolulu, which is one of the most democratic districts in the country, to be a Blue Dog centrist Democrat.”

Case left the centrist Blue Dog coalition in 2023, but has remained a moderate.

Some of Case’s breaks with his party during the Biden and Trump administrations have angered local voters and the Hawaii Democratic Party, making him increasingly vulnerable to a challenger, something Moore said “has been a long time coming.”

The recent far-left victories against older, more moderate lawmakers in New York City and Denver are also driving enthusiasm and interest in Keohokalole’s campaign, Moore added. “That, I think is at least contributing to the vibes shift here, in a sense that the race might be tightening a little bit.”

But Moore also warned from drawing too many conclusions from the New York and Colorado results. “Hawaii is a Democratic state, [but] it’s not necessarily a progressive state, and it doesn’t always follow those trends all that closely,” he said.

Case remains very well known in the district and popular with center-left voters and unions, and he has played to his strengths, highlighting his seniority, his track record in delivering results for the district and his support for the military, “and that resonates a lot.”

Moore said that this style of politics — emphasizing seniority and delivering federal funding — has long been successful in Hawaii politics, perhaps more so than in other parts of the country.

In order for Keohokalole to win, he’d need a significant fundraising boost in the final weeks of the campaign so that he could make a larger media push, Moore said, explaining that the race is still largely flying under the radar for most voters and Keohokalole has more work to do to convince voters that he poses a serious challenge to Case.