The 2010 special election for the 1st congressional district of Hawaii was a special election to the United States House of Representatives that took place to fill the vacancy caused by Representative Neil Abercrombie's resignation on February 28, 2010, to focus on his campaign for Governor of Hawaii in the 2010 gubernatorial election.[1][2] Abercrombie planned not to run for re-election in 2010, and many of the candidates that were running for his open seat transferred to the special election.[1] The election was held on May 22, 2010, and Republican Charles Djou won, defeating five Democrats, four fellow Republicans, and four Independent candidates. The main reason for his win was because there were two Democratic candidates instead of one, which split the votes, allowing Djou to win, as Hawaii is an overwhelmingly Democratic state.[3][4] This is to date the only time a Republican was elected to Congress from Hawaii since Pat Saiki in 1988; Djou volunteered on Saiki's 1988 campaign, and Saiki served as Djou's campaign chair in 2010.
