WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono will officially announce Tuesday she’s running for reelection in 2024, according to a campaign spokesperson.
Hirono, 75, will be seeking her third consecutive six-year term in the Senate.
The senator will make the announcement while back in Hawaii for a district work period that includes breakfast with the owner of Rainbow Drive-In and a roundtable meeting with Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke to discuss early childhood education in the islands.
At this point, it’s unlikely Hirono will face much of a challenge in either the Democratic primary or general election.
She has established herself as a political firebrand in Washington, particularly when it comes to combating the ideology of former President Donald Trump and his acolytes.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Hirono had more than $913,000 in the bank for her reelection campaign as of Dec. 31.
The last time she was on the ballot, in 2018, Hirono did not have a primary opponent and won the general election in a landslide against a Republican opponent who had expressed sympathy for made-up conspiracy theories that equated Democrats to Satan-worshiping pedophiles.
Hirono’s announcement comes amid increased debate about whether America’s top political leaders are too old to effectively serve the country.
Today’s Congress is older than ever and already top Democrats have raised concerns about whether President Joe Biden, who is 80, should run for a second term in 2024.
California Sen. Diane Feinstein, 89, recently made headlines when she said she would not seek reelection next year. By then there were already a number of stories that addressed concerns about the senator’s cognitive decline.
Hirono is not yet an octogenarian, but she is a survivor of stage-4 kidney cancer, a diagnosis she first disclosed in 2017.
If she wins reelection, she’ll be 77 when sworn in and 83 by the end of her term.
Hirono is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a former Hawaii lieutenant governor and a former member of the Hawaii House of Representatives.
She is the first female senator from Hawaii and the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate.
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