Hawaii’s Top Campaign Contributor Is Backing Republicans This Election Cycle …The GOP saw an uptick in donations as well as stronger voter turnout in the Aug. 13 primary election.
A local businessman who favors Republicans in this deeply Democratic state has emerged as the top donor to political candidates in the 2022 elections.
Mike Rompel, the owner of Domino’s Pizza franchises in Hawaii, contributed $52,000 mostly to right-leaning candidates, making him the single largest contributor in the last two years, a Civil Beat analysis of campaign finance data shows.
This includes in 2021 the maximum contribution of $6,000 to Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who’s now the Democratic nominee for governor. But that donation seems to be an anomaly in both timing and partisan tilt.
Three-quarters of Rompel’s donations occurred in 2022, mostly to conservative candidates like Seaula Jr. Tupai, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, and Sen. Kurt Fevella, Hawaii’s only Republican state senator.
