Primary Sources from UH Mānoa Library's Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection
1938: Hiram Fong (Republican) is elected to the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives.
1948: Fong is elected Speaker of the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives, serving in that role until 1954.
1959: Hawaiʻi is granted statehood, which Fong supported; becomes the 50th state in the union.
1959: Fong is elected one of Hawaiʻi’s first two U.S. senators, along with Oren E. Long (Democrat).
1962: Long decides to not seek a full U.S. Senate term; Daniel Inouye (Democrat) is elected to the U.S. Senate.
1964: Fong is the first Asian American to receive delegate votes at a major party convention at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
1964: Fong is reelected.
1964-1968: Fong supports key civil rights, immigration, and social welfare legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the creation of Medicare in 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968; these votes, along with his reputation as a deliverer of constituent services and Hawaiian booster, cements his reputation as a moderate Republican with a handle on the concerns of constituents in Hawaiʻi.
1970: Fong is reelected.
1970s: Fong’s relative popularity among Hawaiʻi voters on the 1960s sours as he continues to back the controversial wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, encounters challenges with big labor, vocally stands by Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and is increasingly seen as a staunch partisan thus diminishing his reputation as a moderate Republican in a Democratic state.
1976: Fong decides not run; Spark Matsunaga (Democrat) wins Fong’s retired seat.
1977: Fong retires from the U.S. Senate.