Kaniela Ing

Early life

Ing was born and raised in Hawaii. Ing attended Kamehameha Schools Maui, Maui Community College, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and American University in Washington D.C. Ing served as UH student-body president, as a neighborhood board member, and has worked in various capacities with Hawaii's business, government, and the non-profit sectors prior to assuming public office.

Background

On his mother's side, Ing's grandmother's parents arrived in Hawaii from Portugal and Spain, and his grandfather from Japan. They met at the Statehood celebration on Maui in 1959, and lived in Hawaii ever since. On his father's side, Ing comes from Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Dutch, Irish, and Russian descent. Ing never knew his grandfather, but was very close with his great-grandparents, who adopted and raised his father, Mark Kaulana Ing, from birth.

According to Ing's campaign website, Ing's father unexpectedly passed away at only 38 years old. Ing worked in the pineapple fields as a young teenager, and depended on subsidized school lunch, social security supplemental income, and pell grants in order to make ends meet and become a first-generation college graduate.

Public life

Ing was elected to serve the 11th House District (South Maui: Kihei, Wailea, Makena) as a 23-year-old first-time candidate in 2012. Ing was widely considered an underdog based on fundraising and name recognition. However, Ing won the Democratic primary election, and overtook three opponents, carrying 43% of the vote. Ing then defeated incumbent Representative George Fontaine (R) in the general election with 61% of the vote to the incumbent's 35%.

Ing was re-elected in the 2014 primary and general elections. In 2016, Ing faced Primary challenger, Deidre Tegarden, an aide to former Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie. Ing prevailed with 61% of the vote to his opponent's 34%.

Mark Zuckerberg's Quiet Title Action

In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg purchased 700-acres of beach front land on the island of Kauai. Zuckerberg initiated "quiet title" and "adverse possession" lawsuits against a number of Native Hawaiian families who held "Kuleana" land rights within his 700-acre Kauai property. Ing called for mediation and community outreach and quipped that "in Hawaii, we don't initiate conversation by filing a lawsuit against our neighbors." Ing argued that defendants in quiet title lawsuits often incur more costs than they ever get paid out, and adverse possession is a corporate squatting law that is predatory by nature and has been used historically to displace Native Hawaiians. Zuckerberg ultimately dropped the lawsuits in response and offered an apology. Kaniela thanked the billionaire for "learning and appreciating the delicate history of our islands." During the 2017-2018 legislative biennium, Ing introduced a bill to weigh the quiet title process more evenly for defendants.

Hawaii's first Net-Zero (100% Renewable Energy) School

Upon election, Ing made funding the high school his community priority and secured over $70 million for the initial phases. Ing elicited public testimony via grassroots community tabling and a tear-and-send testimony postcard that he sent out to his constituents addressed to the House Finance Committee. The project broke ground in January 2016, Phase I (groundwork) was completed in June, Phase IB (initial construction) was awarded in July 2016, and another $63 for Phase II (classroom construction) was secured in the 2017 state budget. The Hawaii DOE has initiated plans and design for the new high school to become the State's first 100% renewable energy powered school.

Water Rights and the Legalization of Industrial Hemp

In 2016, following the announced closure of Hawaii's last sugar plantation, Ing wrote an introduced a bill to legalize industrial hemp in Hawaii. A successful pilot project had just concluded, and Alexander & Baldwin, was interested in growing hemp as one replacement crop in an effort to move to diversified agriculture. The bill followed the Kentucky and Colorado models of legislation, which allowed for "commercial research" to comply with the Federal Farm Act of 2014. Alongside Representative Cynthia Theilen and Senator Mike Gabbard, Ing worked to usher his bill and the senate version through the House. SB2659 was signed into law on June 7, 2016. Ing also worked to help pass a law to replace Hawaii's obsolete acetaldehyde credit with a biofuels credit, the nations first organic food credit, and hubs for small farmers to build capitol and capacity. Ing continues to speak and write about his vision for regenerative, diversified agriculture (e.g. biofuel crops like sunflowers, local food like mangos and avocados, and hemp and bamboo for a variety of uses) and the democratization of water for small, local farmers in Hawaii.)

Same-Day and Automatic Voter Registration

During Ing's first term, he voted for a bill to provide for same-day voter registration law. Ing called the bill a win-win" to "increase turnout, alleviate pollworker burden, and prevent voter fraud in Hawaii by updating technology and "eliminating arbitrary registration deadlines based on technological limitations that no longer exist." With the support of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, the bill passed and was signed into law on June 30, 2014. The new law has allowed voters to register and vote during a single visit at all early-polling places in Hawaii starting in 2016, and at all polling places on election day starting in 2018.

Marriage Equality and LGBT Rights

In November 2013, then Governor Neil Abercrombie convened a special election for the purpose of conducting public hearings to consider the adoption of a law that would legalize marriage for same-sex couples in Hawaii. Ing, a freshman legislator at the time, sat on the joint Finance and Judiciary committee which heard thousands of testifiers over the course of a week. Ing delivered two speeches, one during his committee vote, and one during the final floor vote in the House.