And that's how Hawaii became a state.
I can’t believe that because at statehood Hawaii was principally Republican . The shift to Dems came with the rise of R opposition parties , mostly returned Japanese Nessei from serving in WW2 ( in U.S. forces) , establishing and challenging power on the local level . The old school R’s didn’t want much to do with these former plantation lackeys , until after they’d proved themselves in the battles in Europe . These Nesei basically took over , by storm , and deposed all the old boy Repubs . En masse . The offspring of many of these Nesi formed the bureaucratic corps of Hawaii state government and education , and much in business , including banking. Unions are something else , the vestigial dominions of Hawaii organized crime . The Japanese were not really park of that . It’s all such a long story ...
No, you have it backwards. Alaska was Democrat and Hawaii was considered Republican (although it was already moving Democrat hard in the mid to late ‘50s). AK hadn’t elected a GOP Delegate to Congress from 1930 until 1966 when it sent a GOP House member. Conversely, HI routinely elected a GOP Delegate up until 1956. It benefitted the Dems in the 1958 elections, as AK elected an all-Dem delegation and HI only elected 1 GOP Senator (the other Senator and House member were Dems).