A Hawaii Republican political action committee that regularly attacks the Republican Party of Hawaii, its leaders and some of its candidates is now mocking GOP lieutenant governor candidate Seaula “Junior” Tupai Jr.
Hawaii Republican Action — or HIRA — wrote in a Wednesday “quiz” directed at Tupai, a Hilo-based pastor, “Which 2022 candidate for Lt. Gov. still lives at HOME with mommy at the age of 43 and reported earning LESS than $9,999 in 2021???”
HIRA previously criticized former Republican gubernatorial candidate BJ Penn — a United Fight Club Hall of Famer with a long criminal record — the party and its chairperson Lynn Finnegan. It also has little aloha for Republican gubernatorial candidate James “Duke” Aiona, a former deputy prosecutor, deputy corporation counsel and Circuit Court judge.
Tupai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asked which Republican candidates HIRA supports this election year, its chairman and president Eric Ryan said none.
“It’s pointless to do endorsements when they’re probably all going to lose,” Ryan told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “We’re not in the business of trying to offer false hope.”
“We’re not delusional enough to think that the GOP is going to have a red wave in Hawaii … and that our criticism is going to affect any outcomes,” Ryan said. “We’re trying to fix the party. After 70 years we might actually make the case for how much better things can be.”
HIRA writes that it is “waking up” Hawaii with facts unreported by the “lamestream media” and that it serves as “Hawaii’s Home for REAL Republicans.” Founded in 2009, HIRA also calls itself “the conservative standard-bearer of the Republican Party in Hawaii and the leading advocate for conservative solutions in the islands.”
Additionally, Ryan criticized the Honolulu Star- Advertiser for reporting what he called a “fast-track story” about its mocking of Tupai, senior pastor at Overcoming Faith Center in Hilo.
In 2018, then-GOP gubernatorial candidate Andria Tupola — who now serves on the Honolulu City Council — won a temporary restraining order against Ryan on her third attempt, alleging online harassment that led to death threats. Ryan was later kicked out of the Republican Party. Ryan told the Star-Advertiser on Thursday that the facts reported about Tupola’s TRO were misreported at the time.
Among his many criticisms, Ryan maintains that the Republican Party does not vet its candidates. “We don’t like fast-track vetting and we don’t like fast-track stories,” Ryan said. “There’s a lot more to this story. They don’t like it when we point out that the GOP does no vetting of our candidates. Republicans should be curious about the kind of people we put forward. They’re just empty suits. We want to get people thinking because on the Republican side it’s a very short line.”
He called Finnegan, the Hawaii Republican chairperson, “terrible” because Republican candidates “go down in flames.”
Asked what she believes HIRA is trying to accomplish, Finnegan said: “I don’t know what they’re for other than they attack Republicans. … It seems vindictive.”
Asked why Tupai would be mocked for living with his mother and reporting a low income, Finnegan said: “I definitely don’t see what’s wrong with that when we have multi-generational, local families living in Hawaii. Junior is a missions-oriented person and that he would take a low salary shows what is most important to him. This goes to show that the rich Republican is not our demographic right now. Junior shows all of us that we’re the everyday, average resident of |Hawaii going through the same struggles.”
Finnegan said the people behind HIRA “sit behind a computer and use the power of the internet and social media to try to ruin people’s personal lives and our efforts. They claim that every Republican that ever runs is a ‘RINO,’ a Republican In Name Only. I don’t really know what the end game is for them. But we’re not going to spend our time fighting HIRA. We are completely focused on supporting our candidates.”
