HONOLULU — U.S. Rep. Ed Case joined growing calls for President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid for the White House, breaking ranks with the rest of Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation.
“Difficult times and realities require difficult decisions,” Case wrote Thursday in a statement. “This is one of those times, realities and decisions. My guidepost is what is the best way forward for our country.
“I do not believe President Biden should continue his candidacy for re-election as President.
“This has nothing to do with his character and record. If it did, there would be no decision to make.”
The rest of Hawaii’s congressional delegation did not respond to requests for comment.
The question over what Biden should do next continues to divide Democrats across the country and in Hawai‘i. A news conference that Biden held Thursday at the end of a NATO summit in Washington, D.C., may have done little to change perceptions.
Gov. Josh Green continues to support Biden and has repeatedly expressed his appreciation for Biden quickly providing assistance following the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires.
Following a call to Biden with other Democratic governors following Biden’s poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump two weeks ago, Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “When the wildfire occurred, the president, within six hours, approved our major disaster declaration. No one’s ever seen action that quick,” Green said. “And to walk through Lahaina together with the president, first lady and Jamie (Green, Hawai‘i’s first lady) is something I’ll never forget.”
During the call, Green said Biden was a “different individual” from the one on the debate stage. He said he believes Biden was ill and exhausted from traveling to Europe before the televised event.
Then on Saturday, former Govs. John Waihee, Ben Cayetano and Neil Abercrombie called for Biden to withdraw his reelection bid.
The governors wrote in a joint statement, “What is now known as The Debate was a moment of truth — a moment not of revelation but rather confirmation of what has been apparent for months — The President’s obvious physical decline and increasing difficulty in communicating clearly and cogently.”
“I can’t imagine a person that old doing the toughest job in the world,” Cayetano, 84, told the Star-Advertiser after releasing the statement.
In their joint statement the former governors wrote, “The three of us are the 4th, 5th and 7th Governors of the State of Hawai‘i. Our respective Native Hawaiian, Filipino and Caucasian ancestries are indicative of the diverse reality of Democratic Part(y) values in electoral action.”
Case, a Democrat who represents urban Honolulu, offered no alternative candidate to replace Biden.
“I cannot avoid the conclusion that that choice should be presented with another Democratic candidate,” he wrote. “As to who that candidate should be, there are various paths to that decision. They are difficult and uncertain.
“But no more difficult and uncertain than the current path, nor any reason to stay on this path, which I do not believe is the best path forward for our country.”
Case joins a growing number of Democrats in Congress calling on Biden to end his campaign.
Case called his decision “solely about the future, about the President’s ability to continue in the most difficult job in the world for another four-year term.”
He called the Nov. 5 presidential election “our most consequential in generations.”
“One in which voters must make a generational choice of direction for our country that will also deeply impact our world. Our decision on President, on who will embody and lead that choice, should be made on the merits, with no questions as to basic capacity to discharge responsibilities over another term.”
Case’s stance on Biden was hardly a surprise to Colin Moore, who teaches public policy at the University of Hawaii and serves as an associate professor at the University of Hawai‘i Economic Resource Organization.
“Of the four members of the delegation, I’m not surprised Ed Case was the first,” Moore said. “He’s a moderate who styles himself as an independent thinker.”
While other members of Congress calling on Biden to step aside represent “purple states” or are otherwise politically vulnerable, Moore said Case stands out for being a “moderate in a very safe district in a very blue state.”
So Moore called Case’s position on Biden “significant” while also “showing he wasn’t towing the line of the Democratic Party.”
But Case’s inability to identify a clear alternative to Biden “follows a pattern” by others, Moore said.
“They’re not exactly endorsing (Vice President) Kamala Harris or identifying who should take over,” Moore said.
Case has run afoul of Hawai‘i Democratic protocol before, especially upsetting then-U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye in 2006 by giving up a relatively safe congressional reelection bid to challenge U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, Inouye’s close friend and political ally, who was 81 at the time.
Case had been elected to Congress in a special election in 2002 to fill a vacancy created by the death of Rep. Patsy Mink.
He previously told the Star-Advertiser that during a 2005 meeting, Inouye asked whether Case would rule out a run for the Senate in 2006.
“I replied that while I hadn’t decided to do so, I wouldn’t rule it out,” Case wrote at the time in an email to supporters.
Then in 2010, Case was running in a special election to replace then-Rep. Abercrombie, who resigned his seat in Congress to run for governor.
Inouye endorsed Case’s Democratic opponent, Colleen Hanabusa, and accused Case of misleading Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation about his intentions to run against Akaka in 2006.
Case later withdrew from the primary race, giving Hanabusa a clear path to beat Republican Charles Djou.
Case was making his second run for the Senate in 2011 when he told the Star-Advertiser that he had since apologized to Inouye.
“I told him that I regretted very much the circumstances under which he has opposed me,” Case said at the time. “And I apologized for any offense caused there.”
