Hawaiians launch year-round ‘Vote to Rise’ campaign

Jordyn Danner

KAPOLEI, Hawaii—The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) has hired Ms. Jordyn Danner, a homesteader and former educator to manage its statewide Vote to Rise campaign to implement an intense year-round civic engagement program through more than 50 of its Native Hawaiian member organizations.

Awarded a five-year commitment in funding by a private foundation on the continent, coupled with local funder matching dollars, CNHA will embark on a year-round initiative to increase voter registration and “Get Out the Vote” in Hawaii elections.

“Our Vote to Rise campaign is really an extension of the voter registration efforts we have been building capacity to do for the last 10 years,” said Michelle Kauhane, CNHA President. “We now have a pool of dedicated resources not just to register voters in the heat of big elections, but every month and every year, and most importantly, to engage our coalition of member organizations and partners located everywhere across the state.”

Danner, a graduate of Kapa‘a high school on Kauai and Midland Lutheran College in Nebraska, has spent the last 13 years in educational institutions focused on native children. She leaves the Native Hawaiian Kanuikapono Public Charter School in Anahola after three years to lead the CNHA ‘Vote to Rise’ campaign.

“I’m very excited to take on this new challenge and role serving our native communities,” Danner said. “I’ve grown up and worked in native communities here at home and abroad, and we need more in my generation to take up our kuleana to work directly in the civic engagement arena.”

Jordyn, 34, is the daughter of Native Hawaiian advocate Robin Danner, and was raised on Hawaiian Home Lands in Anahola, Kauai along with her three younger brothers.

“Our entire board and staff are so pleased to welcome Jordyn to our team at CNHA,” Kauhane said. “She is eminently qualified to lead this work, and to also support the training and capacity of our smaller member organizations to leverage their power.”

The Vote to Rise campaign will partner with the ‘No Vote, No Grumble’ initiative, with ‘Native Vote’ and ‘Asian Pacific Islander Vote’ campaigns in Hawaii and across the country. Voter registration, phone banking, voter education and moving the next generation are key strategies of the CNHA Vote to Rise campaign.

For more information, visit www.hawaiiancouncil.org or email policy@hawaiiancouncil.org.

CNHA is a national network of Native Hawaiian Organizations, providing assistance in accessing capital and technical resources, and is a policy voice on issues important to Native Hawaiian communities. Its mission is to enhance the cultural, economic, political, and community development of Native Hawaiians. For more information about CNHA please contact us at 808.596.8155, toll-free at 1.800.709.2642, by e-mail at info@hawaiiancouncil.org, or at www.hawaiiancouncil.org.