Mike and his father Ben at Hickam AFB, 1951

Mike Gabbard is the State Senator for District 19, which includes Honokai Hale, Makakilo, Kapolei, Kalaeloa, Royal Kunia, Village Park, Waikele, and portions of Ko Olina and Waipahu. He is currently the Chair of the Energy & Environment Committee and Vice Chair of the Transportation, International & Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. He’s also a member of the Judiciary & Government Operations and Public Safety & Military Affairs committees.

Mike was born in 1948, one of eight children whose father felt privileged to devote his life to serving his country in the U.S. Air Force. Mike has lived in Hawaii for much of his life. He received his BA degree in English from California State University - Sonoma, and his master's degree in Adult Education with an emphasis in Community College Administration from Oregon State University. Besides his extensive experience as a teacher, counselor, headmaster of a private school, college administrator, restaurant owner, and tennis pro, Mike is an accomplished musician/songwriter. His CD “Stand As One” includes a beautiful collection of heartwarming songs by Mike, as well as selections by Na Leo Pilimehana, Kapena, Kawika, Leon and Malia, and Koa.

Mike is a father of five and grandfather of six. He and his wife of 40 years, Carol, who served from 2000-2004 on the Hawaii State Board of Education, operate a small family business with several lines of healthy living technologies and natural nutritional products. They also make and distribute Hawaiian Toffee Treasures, what many people say is the best English toffee in the world.

Mike is perhaps best known locally and nationally for his leadership role in the eight-year battle to protect traditional marriage, which culminated in the passage of a constitutional amendment ratified by 70% of the people in Hawaii in 1998.

Shortly after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Mike and his daughter, former State Representative Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo, co-founded Stand Up For America (SUFA), a non-profit educational organization that strives to promote unity/patriotism and attempts to increase community awareness of what our Pledge of Allegiance says that we are "one nation under God." Through SUFA, Mike and his family created the "Adopt-a-Hero" program enabling school children and community residents to send aloha packages and letters to Hawaii-based soldiers serving abroad in the fight against terrorism.

In 2001, Mike and Tulsi also co-founded the Healthy Hawaii Coalition (HHC), a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting the environment and improving individual and community health. HHC has been active in Hawaii’s schools teaching children the importance of watershed protection and keeping Hawaii clean and green. To date, 4,500 students at 45 public and private schools across the state have participated in the program so far.

Mike served on the Honolulu City Council with distinction from 2003 to 2005 representing District #1, which stretches from Ewa Beach to Makaha. Some of Mike's accomplishments on the Council include:

• Authored and introduced a precedent-setting resolution prohibiting the placement of landfills over aquifers. The legislation stopped a plan by developers and supportive politicians to allow a garbage dump to be built in Kunia over the Pearl Harbor Aquifer, the source of fresh drinking water for 70% of Oahu 's people.

• Authored and introduced legislation to create a volunteer policing program within the Honolulu Police Department. The bill created a volunteer force of citizens to patrol neighborhoods keeping an eye out for parking violations.

• Organized and hosted a town hall meeting in Waianae to address the problems of "ice" addiction in that community. More than a thousand Waianae residents joined together to sign-wave and attend this grassroots meeting.

• Organized and hosted a town hall meeting to focus on the status of education in the Kapolei/Makakilo/Honokai Hale communities. Over 100 concerned community members and parents, area principals, and Board of Education members attended the forum.
  
  
• Arranged a free showing of the movie "Whale Rider" at Consolidated Theaters in Kapolei for over 400 Hawaii residents, who were recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. Mike knew that this film would be a creative way to help bring the community together and motivate people in the fight against ice and other substance abuse.

• Coordinated fundraising efforts to make the Bruddah Iz sculpture dedication a reality. Over 500 people attended this memorable event in Waianae.
  
  
  Mike celebrated the dedication of the Bruddah Iz sculpture with the
  artist, Jan-Michelle Sawyer (far left) and Iz’s wife, Marlene Kamakawiwo’ole.

• Authored legislation to establish a walk-in absentee voting polling place at Kapolei Hale. This new polling place makes it much easier for the people of Ewa, Waipahu, Kapolei, Makakilo, and the Waianae Coast to vote.

• Authored and introduced legislation to create a volunteer policing program within the Honolulu Police Department. The bill created a volunteer force of citizens to patrol neighborhoods keeping an eye out for abandoned vehicles and parking violations.