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Voters in Royal Kunia-Waipahu-­Honouliuli — part of a West Oahu area that’s been increasingly turning politically red — will have a clear choice between a traditional union-backed Democrat and an incumbent, evangelical Christian Republican whose views are sometimes so extreme that he was condemned by a West side Republican senator.

Republican state Rep. Elijah Pierick is making his first attempt at reelection since he was first elected in 2022.

Asked for an interview about the House District 39 race, Pierick instead requested written questions from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He then responded to a list of emailed questions by saying he did not want to participate, along with an emoji of praying hands.

The questions included Pierick’s age, why he’s running for reelection and his response to several controversial comments he’s made since taking office.

One of them resulted in fellow Republican state Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe- Iroquois Point) to call on residents of House District 39 to vote Pierick out of office.

Pierick, for the second election cycle in a row, again faces a challenge from Corey Rosenlee, 51, who teaches junior- and senior-level social studies and history at James Campbell High School and termed out after six years as head of the influential Hawaii State Teachers Association.

Rosenlee has been endorsed by some of Hawaii’s biggest public worker unions, representing thousands of unionized workers and voters, many of whom live on Oahu’s West side.

Between Pierick and Rosenlee, House District 39 voters “have a real ideological choice,” said Colin Moore, who teaches public policy at the University of Hawaii and serves as associate professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.

Moore called the race “too close to call.”

In the November 2022 general election, Rosenlee lost to Pierick by 704 votes.

In this year’s Aug. 10 party primary elections, Pierick received 1,151 Republican votes and Rosenlee got 1,763 Democratic votes.

Pierick operates a social media operation that’s “quite effective” in which “he’s not afraid to weigh in on the culture wars” on topics such as criticizing drag queen shows in Hawaii, Moore said.

In the six-member House Republican caucus and two-member Senate Republican caucus, Pierick is one of the most politically extreme.

In his first legislative session, Pierick introduced an unsuccessful bill that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

Instead, Gov. Josh Green signed a bill into law that legalizes abortions and protects Hawaii health care workers who perform them and guards them from prosecution if they perform abortions on women from states where abortions are banned.

In March 2023, Pierick visited ‘Ewa Makai Middle School — even though it’s outside his House district — where the school had LGBTQ flags on campus, including outside the principal’s office.

In an Instagram video, Pierick asked his Instagram followers to call or email Principal Kim Sanders with their thoughts and provided her phone number and email address.

“And you might be thinking to yourself, ‘What does that flag actually represent?’” Pierick asked in his video. “‘What is it conveying to our middle school students?’ This is what it means: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual plus. Are these the kinds of concepts and lifestyles we want to be conveying to our middle school students every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all year round? Or should this be a conversation geared toward the home?”

In response, Fevella called Pierick “rubbish” and implored House District 39 voters to “vote that hater out.”

“Elijah, I’m disappointed in you, big time,” Fevella said in a Facebook video in response to Pierick’s video.

Fevella worked as a custodian at ‘Ewa Makai Middle School before resigning in 2018 after he was elected to the Senate, and supported Sanders, the principal, in his video.

“If anybody think they gonna attack my community because they have rainbow flag in their school in their office where you’re supposed to welcome everybody,” Fevella said. “This guy is rubbish.

Sanders told the Star- Advertiser at the time, “Fostering a sense of inclusiveness leads to successful student outcomes. I’m so appreciative of the outpouring of support from our community members who have reached out with positive calls and emails.”

Pierick told the Star- Advertiser at the time, “I appreciate Sen. Kurt Fevella sharing his perspective. The First Amendment gives him the ability to speak freely,” but he declined to answer further questions, such as why he visited the school in the first place.

Along with Rosenlee’s own legislative agenda, Pierick’s views are among the reasons why Rosenlee continues to challenge Pierick and “his extreme, conspiratorial, crazy approach.”

“He has a radio show, and a caller said the Maui fires were intentionally set and that Hunter Biden and laser beams from space were involved,” Rosenlee said. “Pierick said, ‘If you hear it on social media enough times, it must be true. What the social media platforms are saying makes me question and doubt and makes me want to believe what the people believe.’”

Instead of correcting the caller’s beliefs — widely spread on social media at the time, only to be debunked — Pierick, as an elected official, amplified the conspiracy over radio, Rosenlee said.

Pierick also said on TikTok that Democrats — incorrectly — “want to allow abortion 15 days after birth,” Rosenlee said, which would constitute murder, not abortion.

“Our elected leaders have to be held accountable,” Rosenlee said. “There’s no accountability when you make up stuff and fail to cite your sources. I don’t let my students get away with that. A state representative — to say something without evidence really bothers me as a history teacher.”

According to the House Journal that tracks House votes, in the final days of the past legislative session, Pierick was the lone vote of opposition in the 51- member House against multiple bills that have since became law.

The bills that Pierick alone voted against included making it illegal to disclose personal information of some “public serv­ants,” without proper authorization, in an age of harassment and threats against government officials; an emergency appropriation to the state Department of Education related to feeding schoolchildren; a proposed amendment to the Hawaii Constitution to make the selection of District Court judges consistent with the selection of higher-court judges — a question that voters across the state will decide Nov. 5 after legislators approved putting it on the ballot; and other bills involving agriculture, the labeling of macadamia nuts, the landlord-tenant code, regulation of burial sites, beach management along Oahu’s North Shore, housing and a state wildfire forecast system in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires, among other bills.

When Pierick was first elected two years ago, voters were willing to give him a chance, Rosenlee said.

“Now he has a record,” Rosenlee said. “He’s even too radical for Republicans. He was the lone vote on so many issues.”

As the head of the Hawaii teachers union, Rosenlee researched and lobbied for bills every year before the Legislature, giving him a front-row seat to the legislative and political process at the state Capitol.

If elected, Rosenlee plans to push for child care tax credits, expansion of universal child care and paid family leave.

But improving public education and helping students — and their families — afford a college education will be “a top priority of mine,” he said.

Rosenlee wants to make tuition at a University of Hawaii community college free for all Hawaii students and help high school seniors apply for college financial aid and, especially, even free tuition.

“They’re terrified of the next step,” Rosenlee said. “They may be the first in their families to go to college, but they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know how to pay for it.

“Fifty percent of students who qualify for free tuition never apply,” Rosenlee said. “If we reverse the process and allow them to get into college, then it will have a good societal benefit” and help prevent young people from leaving for more affordable states.

“The research is so clear that even with two years of college, their earnings are much better,” Rosenlee said. “I love to dig into policy and look for the best programs around the world, in other states and even in Hawaii. You see good programs and see good practices. Why can’t we do it?”