 and welcome to Connecting Hawaii Business on Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Kathleen Lee, owner of Kathleen Lee Consulting, and I am your host for this program. Think Tech Hawaii is currently live-streamed on ThinkTechHawaii.com as well as on Think Tech Hawaii's Facebook and YouTube pages. And viewers like you have the opportunity to ask us questions during the show by emailing them to questions at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Now that we have that intro out of the way, I am pleased to introduce our guest for today. She is the chairwoman for the Republican Party of Hawaii, Ms. Sydney Godfrey. Hi, Sydney. Thank you for being on the show. Hi. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Absolutely. So let's launch right into this. Tell our viewers about yourself. Okay. I was born and raised in Honolulu. I am Korean and Chinese, and I did attend UH Manoa. I have four children, three daughters and a son. My daughters all live in the mainland, and my son lives here. My daughters live in Ohio, San Diego, and Las Vegas. So they're kind of spread out on the mainland. But so it's fun because I get to visit all my grandchildren all over. So I retired in 2015 after being in business for about 30 years. And my business was about helping people find jobs and helping companies find people. So a lot of my experience is connecting people and recruiting and finding the people that are best suited for the jobs that I was given to help. So that's my background and what I retired from in 2015. I should connect with you more because part of my business is helping people out with resumes and interviews. And thank you for reminding me about that. I know your business did have focused on like employment for people. So it's good. I will talk about that offline. We are here today because we are talking about how you are now the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Hawaii. So tell us about a bit about your journey about how you became the party chair for the state of Hawaii. Well, you know, when President Trump became president, it was such an amazing journey for a lot of us. We were so inspired by him and the things that he was able to do for America. And of course, we were so disappointed when he didn't win in 2020. And so one of the things that he said on his way out was become engaged, get more active as a Republican. So I wasn't very involved up until today. And so I called the party and I tried to find out how I could become more engaged, how it could help, you know? So funny thing, of course, they were looking for a chair candidate. And so I accepted and I ran and I became chair. And that's how it happened. I mean, that's one way of getting involved. Yeah, so I suppose that's also a testament to how you are as a person where you like leading is one way of you to serve the community, which I think is is always great. And I would love for you to go over what the party's values are and what the party stands for. Well, our party's values have always been about letting people decide for themselves what they choose to do. For Republicans support this government, we want lower taxes and being fiscally responsible for it. We like schools of choice. And we do want America to be first. We believe in the Constitution of the United States and our party stands for the people and their freedoms. Wonderful. So tell us about what the Republican Party of Hawaii has been up to these days. And just for to get people up to date, Sidney got into the position in 2021. So earlier this year, May, May 15, just to be sure. I say it because it's only been three months. Yes, yes. So it's only been three months. So in those three months, what has the party been up to? Or what have you kind of picked up on? And what are you looking to introduce as far as the party goes and what you would all like to do for the state? Yeah. So I would say as a newbie, let's just start there as a newbie Republican because I wasn't so involved before. As as most of you know, the Republicans are kind of stagnant. But you know, as I mentioned before, President Trump really kind of woke us all up. And what we saw was a huge like 70,000 more people voted Republicans in Hawaii. It kind of went through the roof for us because we realized that people were more conservative than we actually realized. So what we are up to today is that as a new administration coming in, we have a very, very strong leadership team. So we're getting organized. And each island is working hard to find candidates. Candidates are showing up and wanting to run. And so we're starting to work with these people. And most importantly, I think is that we're organizing ourselves to sustain our future. In other words, when I came into the party, it was almost as if I had to start from the very beginning. In other words, I didn't have enough transition of history. So a lot of it I had to redo or start all over again, which made it, you know, pretty challenging in the beginning, in these first three months, actually. And so we're working on that very hard and focusing on our campaigns, structuring it, organizing it so that we can win our elections. Okay, so let's let's go with that. Well, actually, let me kind of tie in our theme of the show, which is connecting Hawaii business. So I like Hawaii News now had a story on you about like when you first got in, and they mentioned that you wanted to apply your business acumen to run the party as a business. So two part question, Sydney. What are your plans on that? And two, how what are the party's thoughts on how businesses and government in Hawaii should deal with the current pandemic? Totally two different things. But let's start with your plans in running the Hawaii Republican Party as a business. So I think most business owners or people who run their businesses will agree with me that one of the first things we do is make sure that the money we have is being well spent. And we're fiscally responsible. So I took a look at all of our bills, making sure that what we're spending on is what we need. And if we didn't need it, we needed to cut it out. Okay, that was first. So as a business, I looked at the structure and I wanted to make sure that we had a big basis of what we needed to do. And the RNC has been very helpful to us on giving us a lot of assistance and structure. And so we're well on our way organizing and really doing a lot of planning. We're spending a lot of hours organizing. And anyway, that's where we are right now in that in that structure business sense of my experience. As far as the businesses and pandemic, well, sometimes I wonder, have has anyone asked businesses what they need? And how they could run their businesses under the changing pandemic conditions that we are in? I really have to wonder, and I feel like sometimes the state is being run based on according to what they think is best and not asking businesses in the mix of how they could work to we could all work together. Because as you know, we have the red states and the blue states and the red states a little more open than the blue states. And and they're not sicker than the reds. The red states are not much sicker than the blue states. In other words, we're all encountering very similar situations. Okay, but I believe that businesses can remain open using the CDC guidelines, you know, the social distancing and the masking. And and and we can all run our businesses like that. I mean, they let Costco stay open, they let Lowe's and Home Depot stay open, but they close the smaller businesses. But if they had followed the same guidelines, they could have stayed open also. So when when I look at it from a business standpoint, I think, why did they choose to close small businesses and let the larger ones stay open? Did they ask the small businesses, will you be able to run your business using the guidelines? I don't know. To me, that didn't make sense for us to close the smaller businesses and let the larger ones stay open. It was like a almost discrimination. I think that's a that's a valid point, I mean, and it's good that you bring that up. I think it's always good to question things that are going on, especially like guidelines or even like regulations that come down from our local government. So I appreciate you asking that question. On that note, are you or the party currently working with initiatives or programs to align the local party with the national party in addressing COVID-19? Well, I think we share the same values and vision. Okay, let me just start start with that because I always feel that the Republican Party always does what's best for people. So let's just take Hawaii, for example. Since we live on islands, you know, each island has different needs. So I don't feel like sometimes it's the one size fits all kind of a and sometimes I feel that that's what's happening is that we just do a one size fits all and that's it. And then, you know, I know Kawhi wanted different kinds of shutdown and Maui and so forth. So finally, they all came up with their own sort of need for their island. But I feel like sometimes we just need to think almost individually about the issues that affect us. So anyway, as far as aligning with the national, I do feel that we are and some but but you know, one of the hard parts or the challenge here is, of course, that we're a blue state and Republicans are more open about the masking and the vaccinations. So it's just not as easy to align in our state as Republicans. That's fair to say. I want you to go over some of the current challenges that the party has, but that might launch into something longer. So let's go on break first. In that way, we can have something that's uninterrupted. So when you return, Signeen are going to keep talking about the current challenges that she's able to identify when it comes to the Republican Party of Hawaii. So stay tuned. Okay, I'm Mitch Yuan, host of Hawaii, the state of clean energy on Think Tech Hawaii. Hawaii, the state of clean energy is about following the many clean energy initiatives in Hawaii. Hawaii, the state of clean energy appears weekly on Think Tech Hawaii at 4pm on Wednesdays. Thank you so much for watching our show. We'll see you then. Aloha. Welcome back to Connecting Hawaii Business on Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Kathleen Lee and our guest for today is Signee Godfrey, the chairwoman for the Hawaii Republican Party or Republican Party of Hawaii. Okay, so lastly left off, we hinted about the challenges of the Republican Party of Hawaii faces, especially being the minority party of the state. So Signee, let's take that cue. What are the challenges that you identified for the party? So once Hawaii used to have the highest turnout voter turnout at one time, today we're last. And that means that we have become really apathetic. Because a two party state, you know, encourages participation, engagement, it, it makes people want to get involved, engaged. It makes our leaders actually more accountable. It allows more interaction and debate over policies that are really good for the people. So my challenge is to achieve a two party state. And what I know for sure is that we have a leadership team that is getting us organized, working on our infrastructure, focused on sustainability. And we are donating many, many hours to rebuild the Hawaii Republican Party, so that we can have a voice and achieve a two party state, which is so important. I believe it's not only for the Democrats themselves, but for the whole state. So that we have this healthy debate, healthy interaction with each other, and have more balance, I believe that is needed to have a state that is healthy. Let me put it that way. I agree with you on that, Digny. I feel like conversations can progress, especially when individuals and groups are able to offer different opinions. And in doing so, people can find, perhaps like, like holes or things to work on, as opposed to, you know, just like the same opinions and people are not countering them. So I agree with you in that. I know I sent you some questions, but I do want to ask this, like, what do you think would prompt people to be more active in the Republican Party? Well, I mentioned earlier about, you know, the lack of a better word, I'm going to say chumpism. I think chumpism has hit Hawaii. We have a lot of people still very supportive of President Trump. Whether he runs or not in 2024, their, their energy for that kind of thinking that President Trump gave us is still with us. And we are maintaining that there's a lot of people who are just eager to still maintain that. So we're working with the groups that are feeling the same way, and, and pulling, asking them to join us, and they are. And so, so that's what we're working on, is working with Trumpism. Got it. What are some lessons that you can share with your viewers from your experience so far in the last four months? What experiences or lessons, what lessons can you share with your viewers in regards to being the leader, the chair of the Republican Party at Hawaii? Well, okay, I'm going to start out by saying this. Right now, I'm in the honeymoon stage. Since it's only been three months, I feel like I'm a sponge. And I feel strongly that the party is on the rise. I feel very good about that. Our team feels good. And I'm very, very optimistic for our future. Raising money is a challenge, because especially in pandemic times, when we can't all get together. But people are struggling. Businesses are not at full capacity. And our economic leg, the tourism is limping. And our economy is very weak in Hawaii. Most of the money that we have, I feel is going to rail, which is really a disaster. And what I know for sure is that I have done what I'll make use, make sure our party becomes stronger, better, and win elections. And that is what my focus and my team focus and our party is focused on today. Okay, is there anything else that you would like to add that I missed or any questions that I may not have asked, or anything about the party, or your leadership or your process so far that you would like to share with their audience? Well, I hope that whoever is a Republican listening or maybe on the fence about being a Republican might really want to think about joining us and helping us if you're even a little bit conservative, because, you know, really, our state really does need a two party system. And we need to have more balance about that. So, so I just want to leave with that. A two party system is health. Healthy state. Absolutely. And seeing if people would like to get a hold of you, how would they go about in doing that? Okay, they can reach me at Cygni, s-i-g-n-e, at g-l-p hawaii.com. And I don't mind sharing my phone number is, do you folks do that? Yeah, it's up to you. Okay. So my number is 808-226-6216. I'm happy to take calls. Well, thank you very much for that Cygni. Thank you for coming on the show today. We really appreciate you talking to us about the party. And it's always a challenge too, especially if you've just come into a leadership position. So I acknowledge and appreciate and commend you for that. Well, that said, again, thank you. And thank you to Jay Fidel and the entire staff at Think Tech Hawaii for making programs like this possible. We had Michael helping us out today. So thank you, Michael. And until next time, thanks for tuning in to Connecting Hawaii Business on Think Tech Hawaii.