If you spend way too much time on Twitter, you’ve probably come across Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz, perhaps the most active Democratic lawmaker on the platform. He’s also among the most aggressive “climate hawks” in the Senate, having taken the lead, alongside Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, on raising environmental issues in the chamber; he even led some of the negotiations with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin regarding permitting reform during the Build Back Better/Inflation Reduction Act discussions. A former state legislator, state party chair, and lieutenant governor, Schatz has covered a lot of political ground for a relatively young (49) politician and Hawaii, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1970, will likely vote to extend his career for at least another six years.

Bob McDermott, Schatz’s opponent, is one of only four Republicans in the Hawaii House of Representatives, and an outspoken opponent of the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility, which has contaminated the drinking water in the Pearl Harbor area. While that issue may allow him to tout his environmental consciousness, he was also the face of an intra-caucus scuffle that saw Hawaii House Republican Leader Beth Fukumoto ousted from her role for attending the 2017 Women’s March. Fukumoto would eventually leave the party and blame the episode on “racism and sexism,” two qualities unlikely to help McDermott and the Republicans as they try to win voters in the least white state in the country.

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