Hawaii Senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka was appointed to the Senate in April 1990, and won a special election six months later to complete the four-year term of the late Senator Spark M. Matsunaga.  He was elected to his current term in November 1994 with over 70 percent of the popular vote - the largest margin of victory in the Senate that year.

Senator Akaka was elected to Congress in 1976 to represent Hawaii's Second Congressional District.  He won seven consecutive elections by large margins.  In the Senate, he serves on the Energy and Natural Resources, Governmental Affairs, Veterans' Affairs, and Indian Affairs committees.  Senator Akaka is a leader in renewable energy research and development; tropical agriculture and aquaculture research; and marine protection and environmental preservation. He is an advocate for veterans and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Senator Akaka is the first U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry and is the only Chinese American member of the Senate.  He married Mary Mildred Chong in 1948.  The two have five children, fourteen grandchildren and one great-grandson.  Senator Akaka is a member of the Kawaiahao Church.  He graduated from the Kamehameha School for Boys in 1942, completed a Bachelor of Education in 1952 from the University of Hawaii in 1952, and received a Master of Education in 1966.

In World War II he served as a welder in the elite U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with service tours on Saipan and Tinian.  He was a First Mate on the Schooner Morning Star after the war, a teacher from 1953-1960, a vice principal from 1960-63, and a principal for five years after that.  He served in Hawaii's Department of Education, Office of Economic Opportunity, and in the Office of Governor at various times leading up to his election to the House in 1976.