Aloha fellow Hawai’i Democrats,

I am requesting your support for election as our next State Party Chair. I have been a Hawai’i Dem my entire life and an active member of our party for a decade. Most recently I have served as your Vice Chair since Sept. of 2021. During my time within the party as County Vice Chair for Hawai’i Island I helped organize Hilo’s Grand Rally events, Unity Breakfast, and County Conventions, as well as other special events and fundraisers. I’ve held numerous precinct and district positions as well as attended as a delegate to multiple County and State Conventions. I’ve organized a Dem party Beach clean-up, the Blue Wave Food Distribution and most recently the Fourth of July Distribution for Hawai’i County in 2021, where through generous donations of HCC members, leadership, and contributions from elected officials, we were able to provide over 1,000 food bags to households in need.

Beyond balancing Democratic party activities with motherhood, I’m also a small business owner, yoga teacher, and very small time farmer. If elected as your next Chair I will focus my energy for the next two years on balance and accountability within our party. We need to honor the hard work our members do in creating a party platform and resolutions. It’s up to our party leadership to hold those who run as Democrats accountable to our platform. Accountability can be improved by increasing communication between our membership and elected Democratic officials. I would appreciate the opportunity to identify and implement ways that we, as a party, can engage our elected officials in support of various planks of our party’s platform. I will hold a handful of listening sessions across our islands to connect with members of our party who don’t primarily speak up at these sorts of meetings and events to help create balance between our leadership and our broader membership base. My theories on balance come from my yoga background, and also my abilities to balance ideas and priorities within a group.

We can bring more balance into the outreach we do, along with the events we hold. Using our hybrid convention as a model, I would like to reinstate rotating SCC meetings in each county. In conjunction with SCC meetings, events like food drives, tree/plant give-aways, and beach clean-ups can provide networking opportunities to increase our membership and reconnect with our members state-wide after these last two years of isolation and zoom meetings.

Regardless of my future position in the party, I look forward to connecting with those interested in community-centered networking with our members and encouraging elected officials to honor the values and principles we all agree upon by being Democratic Party members.

Mahalo,
Shannon Lopeka Matson