Kaya Selby
RNZ Pacific journalist
Utah’s first state senator
of Tongan descent says there is clearly a desire for
younger, fresher leadership in United States
politics.
Doug Fiefia is the first Tongan-American to
be elected to a state senate anywhere in the US. and will
assume office in January.
A Republican, he served in
the state House for just over two years before
winning the June Primary for Utah’s 18th District, which
includes a piece of Salt Lake City.
Despite being
considered a shoe-in for the seat, Fiefia, speaking to RNZ
Pacific two days after his win, considered himself something
of an underdog, at least at the beginning.
“I took on
an an incumbent that had been in office for 14 years, and so
it was nerve wracking,” he said.
“The institutional
money didn’t come. People didn’t donate because a lot of
organisations don’t donate against an incumbent, and so it
was very grassroots.”
The 37-year-old former Google
employee went on to beat his Democratic opponent, A Dane
Anderson, by a 10-point margin, 55 to 45.
Lacking
traditional donors, Fiefia said he depended on community
fundraising, especially from his local Polynesian
community.
“It was great, and it gave us the ability
to run a very strong and sound campaign.
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“A lot of the
effort and kind of the work was done in June… [but] we
wanted to make sure that we ran to the finish line and
finished the race strong.”
‘Bloodbath’ result
nationwide
Fiefia didn’t shy away from the naked
truth of his party’s midterm election performance
nationally.
“I mean, it was a bloodbath,” he
said.
“We saw in America throughout the country and
even here in Utah, is the blue wave, and I think we as
Republicans need to go back to the drawing table and review
where we fell short.”
He considered his Polynesian
community a “mixed bag” politically, though with strong
conservative leanings. Regardless, he admitted that,
overwhelmingly, they are not better off in the last two
years.
“People voted with their pocketbooks and what
their account said at the end of the day. And ultimately,
we’ve failed to make things more affordable for Americans
and Utahns.”
But he was careful not to pin it all on
the leader of his party, President Donald Trump, or the war
that he started in Iran. Rather, he echoed a classic JD
Vance line, used to describe a myriad of White House
blunders, from Epstein to the mid-term losses as a
“miscommunication” issue.
“Bringing the public along,
being transparent, and this is an issue of all politics as a
whole,” Fiefia said.
“We have to do a better job
communicating with the public, bringing them along… I
think when we lose sight of that, that’s when we can be
replaced,”
He dwelled on the idea that any elected
official, from a state senator to a President, is
replaceable.
“We’ve had longtime politicians who’ve
been in office for a long, long time be replaced. I think
some of it is healthy turnover, and we need to see more of
it throughout the country.”
Trump has two years left
to serve as a lame-duck President. Fiefia wouldn’t speculate
on a post-Trump future in the Republican party – or his own
place in it.
“But I think there is, I think, a real
desire for new leadership.
“I’m excited to see what
the future holds, but for now, I’m happy where I’m
at.”
How do Tongans fare in the US?
Fiefia’s
parents immigrated to Utah in the 1970s. But if that were in
2026, a couple of Tongan nationals may have been stopped
before they could even start.
Tonga is under a
near-total travel ban, and has been since January.
Eligibility for tourist, businesses, student and exchange
visitor visas are nigh impossible to get, and if they do, it
could mean paying a bond of up to USD$20,000.
The
Kingdom was wrapped in with numerous African and Middle
Eastern countries in a broad travel crackdown late last
year, due to high visa overstay rates. Tonga was estimated
to have a rate of around 6.45 percent for B-1/B-2 visas, and
over 14 percent for students and other
overstayers.
Fiefia said it was the right thing for
the US to have done, because the data doesn’t lie.
“I
think it was probably something that we needed to take a
little bit more seriously before they were actually put on
that list,
“It started important conversations, that
if a country gives you a visa and they say it’s for a
certain time, we need to respect that. And how do we hold
our citizens responsible for that time in that agreement
with that country?”
Reflecting on Trump’s wider
crackdown on immigrants in the US, Fiefio didn’t feel as
though the Tongan-American community were particularly
affected.
“The videos that we see online of ICE that
go viral, I don’t see much of that happening within the
state of Utah, because of coordination with law
enforcement.
“As I speak to the Tongan community here
in Utah, I don’t see, you know, much
fear.”
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