It appears to be getting a bit harder to get a free pass on an election in Hawaii.

Every two years, some of the most powerful political leaders in the state — usually Democrats — are delighted to discover after the candidate filing deadline that they are running unopposed. That means they are effectively elected before the campaigns even start.

But there was less of that elation this year after Tuesday’s candidate filing deadline, a sign that the locked- down political structure in Hawaii may be getting just a wee bit more competitive.

Hawaii Republicans managed to field more candidates this year than they did in 2018, and the newly formed Aloha Aina Party is running candidates in more than a dozen House and Senate districts in what is probably a long-shot challenge to Hawaii’s lopsided Democratic Party domination.

Senate President Ron Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau) and House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuu­anu) will waltz to reelection without any opposition this year. And state Sens. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake- Aliamanu), Brian Taniguchi (D, Makiki-Tantalus-Manoa) and Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Moanalua- Halawa) are also unopposed.

In the state House, the unopposed lawmakers this year include Reps. Nicole Lowen (D, Holualoa-Kailua-Kona-Honokohau), David Tarnas (D, Kaupulehua- Waimea-Halaula), Scott Nishimoto (D, McCully- Moiliili-Kapahulu) and Dale Kobayashi (D, Manoa-Punahou-Moiliili).

Also unopposed this year are Reps. Takashi Ohno (D, Nuuanu-Liliha-Alewa Heights), John Mizuno (D, Kamehameha Heights-Kalihi Valley), Aaron Ling Johanson (D, Fort Shafter-Moanalua Gardens-Aliamanu), Linda Ichiyama (D, Salt Lake-Moanalua Valley) and Henry Aquino (D, Waipahu).

While that list might seem long, there will be Democratic primary contests this year for 30 House and Senate seats, which is an unusually large number of Democratic primary races.

At the same time, Hawaii Republicans were able to convince more people to run for the state House this year than they did in 2018, which was a gloomy year for the local party.

In the 2018 election cycle, the Republicans failed to field candidates for 33 of the 51 seats in the state House, but the party reduced that number to 23 in 2020. In other words, GOP candidates this year will be competing for almost half of the seats that are available in the House, which is a significant improvement over the last election cycle.

However, the Republicans failed to field candidates for nine of the 13 Senate seats that are up for grabs this year.

Stepping into that mix is the new Aloha Aina Party, which was formally launched in March in the wake of the months-long protests on Mauna Kea, which effectively stalled construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope for more than a year.

The new party fielded 14 candidates for House and Senate seats — most of them on the neighbor islands — in an effort to advance a political agenda grounded in Hawaiian values and environmentalism.

Pua Ishibashi, one of the co-founders of the party, said the Mauna Kea protests “helped to galvanize a lot of Hawaiians and a lot of Hawaiian organizations, including the launching of the Aloha Aina Party.”

“I think the timing is right, and I think what we don’t know, I think what a lot of people don’t know, including myself, is all this energy from the mauna and 20,000 people marching … we don’t know how all this mauna stuff is going to translate to actual people registering and people voting,” he said. “If it does, then we might see some really exciting changes. We’ll see.”

Colin Moore, director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said he suspects the individual Aloha Aina candidates might not win this year, but “I think there’s a lot of value for the movement in gaining that experience in electoral politics and organizing for campaigns as opposed to direct action.”

“This does represent something pretty powerful, which is using the strength of the movement coming off the Mauna Kea protests to try to get involved directly in electoral politics,” he said.

Creating successful new political parties is “almost impossible in the American context,” Moore said, but the new party could make the ruling Democrats more attentive to Hawaiian issues. He also predicted that Aloha Aina candidates who do well this year and make strong runs for office will be recruited by the Democrats.