How Adrian Tam beat an anti-LGBTQ neo-Nazi and became the only out state rep. in Hawaii
Last year, Hawaii state Rep. Adrian Tam had a colossal task before him. Not only was he running to become Hawaii’s only out LGBTQ representative, but he was running against an anti-LGBTQ, white supremacist neo-Nazi.
To put it mildly, a lot was at stake in his November 2020 race.But Tam didn’t just win. He absolutely pulverized his opponent, Nicholas Ochs, founder of the hate group Hawaii Proud Boys, with 63% of his district’s vote, compared to Ochs’s paltry 29.7%.“I am happy and very hopeful that members of the community realized [The Proud Boys] didn’t represent the values of Hawaii,” Tam told the Daily Beast at the time. “Groups like these will always exist, but it’s up to us to not only tune them out, but to get our message out there and.
