Gov. Josh Green on Tuesday appointed Joje “May” Mizuno to succeed her husband as the new District 29 state representative for Kamehameha Heights-Kalihi Valley.
During the appointment at the state Capitol, Mizuno said she will prioritize affordable housing, health care and crime this legislative session.
“I worked closely with her on health care initiatives over these years,” Green said. “I was absolutely excited, when I took a moment and let people weigh in, to see this outpouring of support for her to enter into this House of Representatives seat.”
Mizuno was among three people nominated to succeed former state Rep. John Mizuno. The others were
Edgar Fernandez, program specialist for the state Workforce Development Division, and Hernando Tan, former president of the Unite Here Local 5 hotel workers union.
“I am an immigrant from the Philippines, and a female,” Mizuno said. “I never anticipated I would ever be appointed to serve as a state representative.”
Green said all three nominees are of Filipino descent.
John Mizuno was appointed by Green as the
coordinator on homelessness in December.
He said one of the reasons why the nomination happened rather quickly is because he wanted to make sure that District 29 had representation instead of remaining vacant before
the legislative session starts today.
He said that “May stood out,” after seeing her work on issues surrounding
District 29 for over a decade and still finding issues that were focused on the community.
Mizuno has been her
husband’s office manager for 17 years and follows a recent trend of office managers rising into a higher position.
Green said that appointing Mizuno to a House seat bears no expectation other than that appointees are expected to “work as hard as they can to provide care and leadership.”
Mizuno also serves as chair of the Kalihi Valley Neighborhood Board, led several organizations including the Congress of Visayan Organization and the Hawaii Outstanding Advocates for Children and Youth Day and Month, drafted legislation over the years and has further served the public through the Aloha Medical/Goodwill mission.
“My suspicion is May told John what to do more often than not, and she appropriately then knows everything about this district, inside and out,” Green said.
While working as a legislative office manager, Mizuno said she regularly took care of issues brought up to the office and addressed those issues together with her husband.
“I pretty much know the district very well,” she said.
With Mizuno joining, there will be 29 members
in the Legislature who are women.
Green said 55% of all the voters in Hawaii are women, but only 37% of Senate and House seats are occupied by women.
During Mizuno’s speech, she hoped that all people
of color, immigrants and women, like her, will never give up in all their life endeavors as they aspire to serve their purpose.
“I’m so confident that she’s going to represent her district with great strength,” Green said.
Mizuno will have a full legislative session starting today to contribute and vote on issues.
All House members are up for reelection this year.
