Interview with HRP State Chair Candidate, Tim Dalhouse
Tim Dalhouse
With the Hawaiʻi Republican Party State Convention coming up this Saturday, May 6th in Hilo, things are heating up in the race for who will be the new Party officers. This includes State Chair, five Vice Chairs, Secretary, and Treasurer.
We are closely watching the developments. It looks to have some exciting potential outcomes, if you talk to former Hawaiʻi Conservatives Chairman, Tim Dalhouse! He stepped down from his role with us a few months ago to pursue the Republican Party’s State Chair position.
I asked Tim Dalhouse to answer a few questions about why he is running, a little about who he is as a person, and what he plans to do if elected to the State Chair position.
Here’s how Tim Dalhouse answered:
Q. So, why did you choose to step down from Hawaiʻi Conservatives to run for HRP State Chair?
A. First of all, I want everyone to know that my singular goal is to help Republican candidates WIN ELECTIONS! Everything I do as your State Chair will be laser targeted at achieving that goal.
From my own experiences running for U.S. Senate in 2022, I know it can be pretty lonely to be a Republican candidate in Hawaii. That is a major reason why I am running for State Chair - to build a robust support network to aggressively help our candidates with fundraising, training, and grass-roots campaigning. I will raise the financial resources to create the party infrastructure and organizational operation that will enable the party to build on the progress we made in 2022 and continue to make even more significant gains.
I spent over $300K on my campaign, on other GOP candidates and on Hawaii Conservatives’ successful efforts in 2022. I am grateful that my businesses are in a place where I can commit the considerable personal time and resources to helping build and strengthen the Hawaii Republican Party. I believe my personal financial commitment to the party will help attract and generate support from donors to help us fund the party at the level it needs to make a real difference in 2024.
Another major reason I am running for State Chair is because I was asked to by so many of my fellow conservatives – incredibly over a 100 people - who are tired of the corruption, incompetence and radicalism that is damaging our quality of life in Hawaii. I’m a fighter and I will push back hard on the Democrats to hold them accountable for their numerous failures. But the only way we will change the direction of Hawaii is to elect more Republicans!
That’s why my strategic goal as Chair is simply to WIN ELECTIONS!
Q. What got you into politics?
A. I’ve been a lifelong Republican voting for the first time in 1988 for President George H. W. Bush. I have voted in every election since then, many via absentee ballot from deployed locations around the world as an active duty U.S. Marine. I always thought someday I would run for office myself. In August, 2021, as I watched the botched withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Afghanistan and the handing over of U.S. military hardware to the Taliban, I knew it was time to step up and run for office to make a difference. So, in 2022, I ran as a first-time candidate for the U.S. Senate in the Hawaii Republican Primary. While I was honored to carry the Neighbor Islands it wasn’t enough to overcome state Representative Bob McDermott on Oahu. The day after the primary I endorsed Bob and supported his candidacy. I’m grateful to now have Bob’s support for State Chair.
After the primary election, I still wanted to make a difference for conservative candidates in the general election, so I founded Hawaii Conservatives, a political committee, whose mission was to “Deliver wins for conservative candidates and causes.” Hawaii Conservatives played a key role in helping defeat Democrat incumbents and winning open seats last year. We mobilized grassroots volunteers, raised money for mail and digital ads that supported our candidates, and successfully targeted races that helped us pull off Republican upsets. I recently stepped down from my role there to run for State Chair as that is where I believe I can have the most positive impact for helping to get more Republicans elected to State & Federal government.
Q. What would you like people to know about you personally as you run for the HRP State Chair position?
A. I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1985 as a 17-year-old and for the next 24 years, I proudly served the country I love so much! I deployed overseas 7 times, including leading Marines in 2 combat operations. But the greatest honor of my service occurred when on 3 separate occasions it was my solemn duty to escort the remains of Marines who were killed during combat in Iraq home to their families.
After retiring from the Marines, I led projects at several private companies and government agencies. I served as Treasurer of a non-profit Christian ministry for 5 years which relied on donations and volunteers just like the HRP. In 2017, my wife, Alicia and I founded the project management training company, PM-ProLearn, and we now have 28 employees – most of whom are veterans or family members of veterans - across 15 states with annual revenue exceeding $4M. Our other business projects include owning a small shopping plaza in Kailua-Kona that we are refurbishing after it was decimated by COVID shutdowns and starting 2 local businesses there - adding jobs to the local economy. I am a member of the board for the Kailua Village Business Improvement District, and I serve as a deacon at my church on the Big Island.
I hold several management certifications including an MBA degree with a specialization in public management which have been part of developing the skills needed for business success and which I believe are directly relevant to managing the organizational and financial needs of the Hawaii Republican Party.
I live in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, married to Alicia. I have one adult daughter and two adult stepsons, along with 3 dogs, a cat, and 13 young fruit trees. My wife and I are SCUBA divers and enjoy the beautiful waters around Kona as often as we can.
Q. Who is on your Slate of partner candidates and why did you choose them as your running mates?
A. Shirlene Ostrov will serve as 1st Vice Chair for Coordinated Campaigns, Paul Morgan will serve as Vice Chair for Candidate Recruitment & Training, Monique DePonte will serve as Vice Chair for Communications, Veamoniti Lautaha will serve as Vice Chair for Community Service, Keone Simon will serve as Vice Chair for Coalitions, Anna Hudson will serve as Secretary, and Sheila Walker will serve as Treasurer. All these splendid patriots have either been a candidate for public office or directly worked on a candidate campaign. They know what support Republican candidates need, and they are each uniquely qualified to deliver unparalleled success in their areas of responsibility.
As a matter of fact, over the last several months, they have all helped me formulate our strategy to propel the HRP to WIN ELECTIONS starting in 2024 by building on the momentum we saw in 2022 with several upset wins in the State Legislature. We’re excited about doubling the size of our state government Republican Caucus in 2024 and helping to elect a Republican President!
Q. Final Question: What is your strategy to lead the Party to win more elections?
A. To drive it home one more time, my strategic goal as Chair is simply to WIN ELECTIONS! Our strategic plan is laid out in 6 points using the acronym “PROWIN”.
P – Produce new and innovative funding
Quarterly events with big-name speakers and multiple revenue-generating activities.
Remotivate individual donors through targeted campaigns.
Connect with national-level funding sources.
R – Recruit, train, and inspire competitive candidates
Recruit starting now for every office in every District.
Leverage Leadership Institute for candidate training.
Hana hou program to develop past first-time candidates into professional candidates.
O – Organize Districts for grassroots success
Actively recruit competent and engaged leadership for every District position.
Collaborate across the State to support each other’s efforts.
Leverage Leadership Institute for leader training.
W – Win the hearts and minds of Hawaii’s people
Conduct surveys to assess the current mindset & core influencers of Hawaii’s people.
Create effective messaging to influence adoption of a conservative mindset.
Leverage every type of media to relentlessly communicate our message.
I – Institute election integrity at all levels
Recruit, train, and engage election workers and observers at every polling place.
Publicly communicate election integrity violations across the media.
Pursue legal action against State & Local election officials when necessary.
N – Never sacrifice the mission
Always weigh every decision & course of action against how it helps us WIN ELECTIONS.
Pursue everything that helps us WIN ELECTIONS and proactively avoid everything that does not.
Thank you, Tim, for sharing your perspective!
Tim Dalhouse carries some impressive endorsements, including from elected Republicans: Senator Brenton Awa and Reps Lauren Cheape Matsumoto, Diamond Garcia, Gene Ward, Elijah Pierick, and David Alcos. And from former Reps Bob McDermott and Lynn Finnegan – and even former Congresswoman Pat Saiki. It’s an impressive list of people who have been in the fight for Republicans and Conservatives at-large.
We’ve been asked many times about Charlotte Rosecrans and Michael Jauch, Tim’s opponents for State Chair. So I’ll respond briefly on each below.
Charlotte Rosecrans is a fighter. That could be a very good thing, if only her efforts were more often directed at the liberal monopoly putting a strangle-hold on Hawaiʻi’s politics. Instead of fighting Democrats, she more often fights her fellow Republicans. She’s even gone after Rep. Diamond Garcia on multiple occasions over the most minor and insignificant of issues – and while he’s in the middle of the Legislative Session arguing on crucial bills! Rep. Garcia is one of our movement’s torchbearers. He needs our support desperately, not troublemakers looking to distract him from his mission. That’s just one example of how Charlotte spends her time. I’ve seen it countless times. Let’s also not forget that at a Party meeting, she told a longtime Republican with a heart condition that she hoped he died. Those kinds of antics toward fellow Party members is unacceptable anywhere, anytime, for any reason!
Michael Jauch wasn’t involved in the Party’s efforts in 2022 and is virtually unknown to everyone in the Party – and the Conservative movement at-large. That statement speaks for itself. While I am very excited that people are waking up to our political reality, and I will greet them with open arms, I question why their first major act is to seek a position of power. We see the same from many candidates for State and Federal offices. They come from nowhere and when they lose, they entirely disappear from whence they came – after making a slew of unkept promises. I really do hope he sticks around, but history tells me that we’re unlikely to hear from him again if he loses. And he’s a total wild card if he wins. No speech can make up for a near-to total lack of involvement. Don’t tell me, show me!
We wish all of the candidates the best, even when we disagree! We’re all in this fight together! Let’s remember that.
As a reminder, Hawaiʻi Conservatives does NOT endorse in internal Party races. This is political analysis/commentary, which we provide from time to time to inform Conservatives of what’s going on.
Donate to Hawaii Conservatives Today
To help us win Hawaiʻi – and take our country back!