To break the Democrats’ grip on the 1st Congressional District, Republicans have needed a contested primary or special election to divide the vote.

This year, former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa is launching a campaign to take back the congressional seat she left to unsuccessfully run for the U.S. Senate.

Barring a well-known Democrat leaping into the race before the Tuesday filing deadline, Hanabusa should be expected to be booking a flight back to D.C. as the congresswoman-elect.

When former U.S. Rep. Cec Heftel left his seat to run for governor in 1986, it set up both a contested special election and an election for the new congressional term.

Neil Abercrombie won the special election and lost the primary election for CD-1; the race between the two Democrats was bitter enough to allow GOP candidate Pat Saiki the chance she needed to win the general election.

Again in 2010, the departure of Neil Abercrombie to successfully run for governor triggered a winner-take-all special election.

The Democratic vote split between Hanabusa and Ed Case, and the GOP’s Charles Djou won the special election.

But, in the ensuing general election, Hanabusa easily won her first congressional race.

Now in 2016, Hanabusa is expected to also be a formidable political presence. Just one year ago, she was telling Hawaii News Now that she had nothing lined up.

“You can just assume that if something’s going to happen, it will happen, but right now, it’s not happening.

“I’m not absolutely ruling out anything in 13 months. We just have to wait and see about how things move in this community,” Hanabusa added. “You can never say never to anything.”

Sadly, what happened was that U.S. Rep. Mark Takai was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has now spread, forcing Takai to say he will not run for reelection.

Last weekend at the state Democratic convention, Hanabusa was quietly circulating her nomination papers to get signatures for her campaign back to Congress.

Also during the convention, she was endorsed and praised by Takai in a speech given by Takai’s assistant.

The Democratic primary Senate race in 2014 between Hanabusa and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz was a statewide contest, but in CD-1, Hanabusa beat Schatz. Schatz won 11 state House districts and Hanabusa won 14.

The Nuuanu House District 27 was as far east as Schatz could move; everything on Oahu to the west of the Pali was Hanabusa country.

The Senate contest came to a tortuous conclusion dominated by Iselle, the strongest hurricane to ever hit Hawaii County. It caused two Puna District polling places to be closed.

The voters were given a chance to vote a week later. The result was Hawaii’s bitterest Democratic primary since the 1970s. Schatz finally won by just 1,782 votes.

Hanabusa decided against a rematch this year and was mentioned as an opponent to Gov. David Ige in two years.

And though Hanabusa does have opposition in this year’s Democratic primary, the cheering reception she had at the Democrats’ convention should show that the House can be her home.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.