# Mazie Hirono **Mazie Keiko Hirono** (b. November 3, 1947, in Japan) is the junior Democratic U.S. senator from Hawaii, in office since **January 3, 2013**. ## Why she's on the map Hirono's seat on the **Senate Judiciary Committee**, held since she entered the chamber, is the reason she appears throughout this knowledge base's material on the federal judiciary. She is the member who made a practice of asking every judicial nominee, on the record, whether they had ever been accused of sexual misconduct — a question that turned confirmation hearings into a documented screen rather than a formality, and that the movement building the conservative judiciary has treated as an affront. She is also among the Senate's firmest votes on abortion rights, and after January 6, 2021 was among those calling for Trump's removal under the Twenty-fifth Amendment. ## Background Hirono was born in Japan and raised partly in Hawaii. She served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1981 to 1994, as the state's lieutenant governor from 1994 to 2002, and was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2002, losing to Linda Lingle. She represented Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2013. She won the Senate seat vacated by Daniel Akaka's retirement, defeating Lingle 63–37 in November 2012 — a rematch of the governor's race she had lost a decade earlier. She was re-elected in 2018 and again in 2024, defeating Bob McDermott 64.6–31.9, so her current term runs to January 2031. In 2017 she was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer and continued serving through treatment. ## Firsts Hirono is the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first U.S. senator born in Japan, the first elected female senator from Hawaii, and the Senate's first Buddhist — though she describes herself as a non-practicing Buddhist. ## In the Senate Beyond Judiciary she serves on **Armed Services**, **Energy and Natural Resources**, **Small Business and Entrepreneurship** and **Veterans' Affairs**. She was a lead sponsor of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act addressing anti-Asian hate crimes, which passed the Senate 94–1 in April 2021. ## See also - [[Brian Schatz]] — Her Hawaii colleague and the incoming Senate Democratic whip - [[United States Senate]] - [[Democratic Party]]