Local News

Money flows into West Maui state House race

More money than ever is pouring into the race to represent Lahaina at Hawaii's state house, with donations 100-times greater than 2024's elections.

About 143 donors have spent over $88,000 across all campaigns this year, more than triple the amount of money incumbent Elle Cochran raised when she was elected in 2022.

Three candidates are vying to represent West Maui at Hawaii's House of Representatives. Elle Cochran has represented Lahaina since 2022 and is running for her third term. Cochran switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican party this March. Sne Patel is running as a Democrat, and Paele Kiakona is running with the Green Party.

The Maui News looked into each of the candidates, what they've said in community forums and who is spending money to support their campaigns.

The elected candidate will represent House District 14, an area that covers all of West Maui, including Maalaea, Waihee, Olowalu, Lahaina and more. The elected representative will work in the state House, which has 51 members who vote on state bills and funding.

Early voting opens Oct. 16, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Only district residents can vote for the state House representative. Each term lasts two years.

Sne Patel

"I did all my adulting on Front Street," Sne Patel said at a September Honolulu Civil Beat candidate form held at the Lahaina Civic Center.

Patel was born in India, grew up in Chicago and moved to Lahaina in his early 20s, where he worked at bars, restaurants, small businesses and art galleries along Front Street. Patel lives with his wife and three sons in West Maui, where he's lived for over 23 years.

Patel has raised the most money in the state House race. Over 80 donors have given more than $62,000 to his campaign, including nine out-of-state off-island donors that have contributed over $4,900.

Top donors from Hawaii for Patel's campaign include the Maui Prep board president Jim Bozich; Lynn Barr, a healthcare entrepreneur from Washington state who lives on Front Street; and John Kindred, a retired finance executive who now runs a small business selling Hawaii-grown wasabi.

Realtor, carpenter and mason unions also make up Patel's big donors. Three Realtors with Keller Williams and a Realtor with Coldwell Banker contributed to Patel's campaign.

The campaigns supporting state House legislators Gregg Takayama, Linda Ichiyama, Kyle Yamashita, Troy Hashimoto, Mark Hashem, Richard Onishi and Greggor Ilagan have contributed over $7,000 to Patel's campaign.

All of the legislators funding Patel's campaign have overlapping donors themselves, including Alexander & Baldwin, a Hawaii real estate conglomerate and major "Big 5" sugarcane producer known for diverting streams to feed cash crops in the past.

"I feel like this was an important time for me to finally step up and look at serving West Maui in a higher capacity," Patel said of his reasons for running for office.

Patel said he has volunteered an estimated "tens of thousands" of hours on nonprofit boards and commissions in Lahaina.

"We need somebody strong from West Maui that's going to concentrate on West Maui," Patel said. "And that's me."

Pāʻele Kiakona

Pāʻele Kiakona grew up in Mala Village in a home where seven generations of his family have also grown up. His family's generational home burned down in the August 2023 Lahaina fire.

Since the fires, Kiakona has been an organizer with Lahaina Strong, where he has led movements for local housing and restoring balance to Maui's water, land and people after decades of corporate exploitation. Kiakona also helped write state House legislation to let each island control their own vacation rental laws, and works with the Lahaina Energy Partnership to brainstorm new energy solutions for Lahaina.

Fifty-seven donors have contributed over $26,000 to Kiakona's campaign. Kiakona's 11 out-of-state off-island donors contributed over $3,100 for his campaign.

Top Hawaii-based donors for Kiakona's campaign include the ILWU42, a labor union that represents dock and warehouse workers, and Amber Bobin, a Maui-based media strategist who worked on the Wailuku Film Festival and grassroots film "Lahaina Rising." Five of Hawaii's largest labor unions have endorsed his campaign.

Kiakona's off-island donors include Angela Adrar, who is the director of the Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship at the New School and Jenn Kaaoush, the leader of Superior Rising, a fire recovery organization in the town of Superior, Colorado, who now serves as the mayor pro tem.

Other people who have donated to Kiakona's campaign include Lahaina Strong activists, a Maui immigration lawyer, a Lahaina construction company that supervises residential rebuilds and representatives from Aloha Air Cargo.

"It's pretty simple and easy why I'm running," Kiakona said. "I love this place. I love this community. I want to protect everything that makes this place home."

Elle Cochran

Elle Cochran lived off the grid in West Maui's Honolua Valley for over 25 years, until Maui Land & Pineapple Co. wanted to pave over the area to create an 18-hole golf course. Cochran led a grassroots coalition to save Honolua Bay, a sacred place for Native Hawaiians with many burial sites, from hotel development.

Cochran said her grassroots activism inspired her to run for Maui County Council, where she served for eight years before running for the state House and serving Lahaina there since 2022.

In 2025, Cochran missed 85% of the floor votes at Hawaii's State House, telling Hawaii Public Radio she was busy focusing on needs at home. In March 2026, Cochran announced she would switch her party from Democrat to Republican.

"I was tending to lean toward the Republican party and their mindset and their philosophy on things," Cochran said at Honolulu Civil Beat's candidate forum. "They were always so welcoming and nice to me on top of that. We already had a really good working relationship."

In 2022, Cochran raised over $29,000 from 22 donors and won the state House Representative seat for the first time, including $700 from three out of state donors.

Cochran donated $500 to her campaign in 2026. She has not received any other campaign donations this year.

Yiming Fu is reporting for The Maui News as part of the Maui Nui Media and Creativity Collaborative Investigative Elections Reporting Fellowship, which supports expanded reporting on Maui County elections.