David Ige Biography
David Ige (David Yutaka Ige) is an American politician serving as the eighth governor of Hawaii since 2014. He is a Democrat, he previously served in the Hawaii State Senate. During the 2014 gubernatorial election, he won the Democratic primary by defeating incumbent Governor Neil Abercrombie and won the general election by defeating former Republican Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona. He then won re-election to a second term in 2018.
David Ige Education
David Ige attended public schools in Pearl City – Pearl City Elementary School, Highlands Intermediate School, and Pearl City High School. He also participated in community sports, beginning with eight years of playing in the Pearl City Little League. At the newly built Pearl City High School, he excelled in many activities. In his junior year, he was elected student body vice president, and he served as senior class president the following year. His campaign for student body president stressed diversity and an end to bullying.
He led his varsity tennis team to a championship and was honored as the “Scholar-Athlete of the Year.” He graduated fifth in his class of more than 500 students in 1975. Despite being accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. While at UH, he served as student body secretary and an officer of several honor societies as well as treasurer and vice-president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Sigma.
David Ige Age
David Ige was born on 15 January 1957 in Pearl City, Hawaii, United States.
David Ige Family
Ige was born and raised in Pearl City, Hawaii, and is the fifth of six sons of Tokio and Tsurue Ige, ethnic Japanese Americans of Okinawan descent. During World War II, Tokio served in the 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. After the war, Tokio Ige worked as a steelworker on construction projects while Tsurue he worked as a nurse and dental hygienist. Tokio Ige died in 2005 at the age of 86. Tsurue, now retired, resides in Pearl City.
David Ige Wife
Ige married Dawn Ige, He met his wife at The University of Hawaii.
David Ige Children
Governor David and his wife have three children, Lauren, Amy, and Matthew, who are currently pursuing their careers on the mainland.
David Ige Height
He stands at a height of 5 feet 7 inches and weighs around 70 kg.
David Ige Net worth
Ige net worth is estimated at around $300 Million USD, His primary source of income is his political career.
David Ige Engineering career
After college, he worked for GTE Hawaiian Tel, he then took graduate courses at UH and earned a Master of Business Administration degree in decisions sciences. In 1986, Hawaii Business Magazine named him one of the university’s Top 10 MBA students. Prior to him being the governor of Hawaii, he served as a project manager with Robert A.
He and his Associate Vice President of engineering were involved at NetEnterprise, and senior principal engineer at Pihana Pacific, which established the first world-class data center and carrier-neutral Internet exchange in Hawaii and the Pacific. Before that, he worked as an engineer for GTE Hawaiian Tel for more than 18 years.
David Ige Politician
He was originally appointed to the Hawaii House of Representatives on December 2, 1985, by Governor George Ariyoshi, after Representative Arnold Morgado resigned to run for the seat of Honolulu City Council. He served in the Hawaii State Senate from 1995 through 2015. During his legislative career, He has served as the chairman of nine different committees. He focused much of his career as a legislator on information and telecommunications policy.
In the Legislature, he co-authored the Hawaii Telecommunications and Information Industries Act that established the state information network and created the Hawaii Information Network Corporation. He has also been at the center of Hawaii’s efforts to diversify its economy. He was responsible for establishing seed capital and venture capital programs, software development initiatives, and technology transfer programs.
David Ige Campaign
He won the re-election to the Hawaii State Senate in 2012, after defeating Republican challenger and former U.S. Naval Aircrewman, Army Captain, and small business executive Mike Greco. He was the first challenger who faced in a general election in over a decade. During the 2014 campaign elections for Hawaii Governor Ige ran against incumbent Neil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary for the 2014 gubernatorial election.
Though he was outspent in the race by the incumbent, Ige defeated Abercrombie by 66% to 31%. Ige’s victory made him the first candidate to ever defeat an incumbent Governor of Hawaii in a primary election. He faced Republican Duke Aiona and Independent Mufi Hannemann in the general election and won the election by 12% points.
David Ige Governor of Hawaii
David Ige was sworn in as the eighth Governor of Hawaii on December 1, 2014, with Lieutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui, in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda. He is the second person of Japanese descent to be elected Governor of Hawaii (the first being George Ariyoshi), and the first person of Okinawan descent to be elected governor of a U.S. state.
Governor Ige’s inauguration theme of “honoring the past and charting a new tomorrow” was on display throughout the ceremony, which paid tribute to his father who served in the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the U.S. Army during World War II alongside the late U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye.
David Ige Gubernatorial
In October 2015, David Ige has declared a state of emergency due to the escalating scale of the homelessness problem; in 2015 Hawaii had the highest rate of homeless persons per capita in the United States. In June 2017, following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, he signed two bills that respectively committed the state to meet regardless its greenhouse gas emission targets under the Paris Agreement and established a carbon reduction and soil health taskforce.
After an incoming missile alert was erroneously sent to all smartphones in the state and broadcast over local television and radio on January 13, 2018, he apologized for the mishap, which he attributed to human error during a shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. He pledged to re-evaluate the state’s emergency procedures to prevent a recurrence of the false alert, which caused widespread panic and confusion in the state.
