Hawaii Governor David Ige appointed Democrat Clare Connor as the 16th Attorney General of Hawaii on January 3, 2019. On April 22, 2019, Connors was confirmed by the Hawaii State Senate in a unanimous 25–0 vote.
Areas of focus since taking office have included:
1) Public corruption. Mere weeks in to her new role as Attorney General, Connors filed a petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court to have Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro suspended, after he was named in a USDOJ criminal investigation.
2) Women’s reproductive health. Despite her upbringing as a devout Catholic, Connors supports abortion services and access to affordable birth control. In March 2019 she joined a coalition of 21 State Attorneys General in filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Title X Gag Rule.
Professional Background: Connors began her legal career in 2002 as a clerk in the US District Court for the District of Hawaii. She then served as a trial attorney in the Tax Division of the USDOJ and as a Special AUSA in the Eastern District of Virginia. In 2004 she returned to Hawaii, where she served as an AUSA in the Criminal Division of the US Attorney’s Office. From 2011 to 2019, she had a civil litigation practice at Davis Levin Livingston in Honolulu.
In 2015, President Obama nominated Connors to serve as a US District Judge of the US District Court for the District of Hawaii. That nomination expired in 2017.
Education: Connors received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in 1996 from Yale College, and went on to obtain a JD in 2002 from Harvard Law School.
Personal: Connors is the daughter of a former priest and a former nun. Connors lives in Hawaii, where she was raised, with her husband and two children.