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About Honolulu City Council District IV — Windward Oʻahu (Kāneʻohe / Kailua)

Honolulu City Council District IV spans the Windward side of Oʻahu — the communities of Kāneʻohe and Kailua, along with surrounding Ko'olaupoko neighborhoods — a region defined by natural beauty, recurring flooding challenges, and some of the most acute affordable-housing pressures anywhere in the city. The incumbent in this race is Tommy Waters, a Democrat and the current Honolulu City Council Chair who has represented District IV since 2020 and brings significant institutional influence into his re-election bid. Waters faces three challengers: Tara Malia Gregory, who is running with an active campaign website at taramalia.com; Jason K. Liang; and Trevor Ozawa. The incumbent's tenure as Council Chair has placed him at the center of major city budget decisions, the ongoing oversight of the Skyline rail project, and debates over city land-use and rental policy — a record both his supporters and challengers are likely to scrutinize. For Windward voters, the defining issues of the 2026 race revolve around the district's distinct geography and housing market: chronic flooding and the adequacy of drainage and stream-management infrastructure in lower Kāneʻohe; the limited housing supply in communities like Kailua that consistently rank among the most expensive on Oʻahu; short-term vacation rental proliferation that has reduced long-term rental inventory in neighborhoods where workers and families are struggling to stay; and the future of the Windward bus network as Skyline reshapes transit on the Leeward and urban-core sides of the island. Voters are in effect choosing whether to continue with Waters's Council leadership record or shift toward one of the challengers' visions for the Windward communities.

Primary date: 2026-08-08