The 1959 United States Senate elections in Hawaii were held July 28, 1959. Following the admission of Hawaii as the fiftieth State in the union, the state held two simultaneous elections to determine their first senators. The elections were split between the Republican and Democratic parties. The new senators took office August 21.

Oren E. Long Oren Ethelbirt Long (March 4, 1889 – May 6, 1965) was an American politician who served as the tenth Territorial Governor of Hawaii from 1951 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, Long was appointed to the office after the term o ...

was given seniority based on his service as Governor of Hawaii.

Hiram Fong Hiram Leong Fong (born Yau Leong Fong; October 15, 1906 – August 18, 2004) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician from Hawaii. Born to a sugar plantation Cantonese immigrant worker, Fong became the first Chinese-American and first ...

became the first

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

U.S. senator and the first person to be born outside of the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

Class 1

This election was for the class 1 term expiring in 1965. It was won by Republican

General election

Candidates

Frank Fasi Frank Francis Fasi (August 27, 1920 – February 3, 2010) was an American politician who was the longest-serving Mayor of Honolulu, Hawaii, serving for 22 years. He also served as a territorial senator and member of the Honolulu City Council. ...

, Territorial Senator (Democratic) *

, former member of the Territorial Legislature (Republican)

Results

Class 3

This election was for the Class 3 term expiring in 1963. It was won by Democrat Oren Long, who started an as-of-yet uninterrupted streak of Democratic victories in the Class 3 Senate seat in Hawaii. As of 2022, Tsukiyama's loss by a 2.8 point margin is the closest Republicans have come to winning this seat.

General election

Candidates

* Oren Long, former territorial Governor of Hawaii (Democratic) *Eugene Ressencourt (Commonwealth) * Wilfred Tsukiyama, former President of the Territorial Senate (Republican)

Results

Following Long's victory, Governor

William F. Quinn William Francis Quinn (July 13, 1919 – August 28, 2006) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 12th and last governor of the Territory of Hawaii from 1957 to 1959 and the first governor of the State of Hawaii from 1959 to 1 ...

appointed Tsukiyama to the

Hawaii Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Hawaii is the highest court of the State of Hawaii in the United States. Its decisions are binding on all other courts of the Hawaii State Judiciary. The principal purpose of the Supreme Court is to review the decisions of ...

References

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

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