I tended to cut Fong some slack, given the state at the time. His ACU rating was close to 70 prior to Watergate (67-1971; 64-1972; 68-1973) though plummeted by half afterwards (38-1974; 48-1975; 50-1976) prior to his decision not to run again in 1976. Had he run again in 1976, he probably still would've eked out another win (Ford won HI in '76, IIRC) and would've had Hayakawa as a seatmate. Of course, Hayakawa was a fair Conservative with real cajones (he stood up to the anti-Vietnam War kooks, physically), but he wasn't a spring chicken (at 70, the same age as Fong) when he upended one of the biggest empty-suit liberals of the time, John Tunney.
Sadly, when Hayakawa stepped down (he was often smeared by the media with the moniker "Sleepy Sam" for dozing off during hearings with liberal Democrats droning on and on), realizing he didn't want to spend his twilight years in DC, it paved the way for the Pete Wilson dynasty... and we all know how that turned out.
While Ford did very well in HI in 1976, Carter beat him there by a bit over 7,000 votes, 50.59% to 48.06%.