For some lawmakers, quietly is the most effective way to legislate. Others feel the public should hear exactly where they stand.

At first, Sam Kong politely declined to comment on the fact that Civil Beat identified him as the least talkative of all 76 members of the Hawaiʻi Legislature during the 2025 session. Then he called the reporter back.

“I was thinking about what you said, because it includes committee hearings and everything, right?” he asked.

Affirmative, the reporter responded.

Kong did not take issue with the analysis which was done through Civil Beat’s new Digital Democracy platform. The site uses artificial intelligence and other tools to transcribe all legislative committee hearings and floor sessions and, in this case, count the words spoken by each lawmaker.

Kong ac

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