“When I arrived at the Capitol in 2007 to take my oath as a new member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I had the privilege of filling the seat held for so long and so well by my friend Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress. I was so grateful to her.”

American lawyer and politician

Mazie Keiko Hirono is an American lawyer and Democratic politician. Since 2013, she has served as the junior United States senator from Hawaii. Born in Japan, she built a long career in Hawaii politics before entering the Senate. Hirono previously represented Hawaii's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House from 2007 to 2013. Before that, she served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1981 to 1994 and as the state's tenth lieutenant governor from 1994 to 2002. In 2002, she was the Democratic nominee for governor of Hawaii, but lost the race to Linda Lingle.