--- title: Hawaiian Lawmaker Tries Tinder to Connect With Voters, Fails description: A Hawaiian lawmaker who is seeking higher office went on Tinder to connect with voters — but many on the mobile dating app missed his point canonical: https://time.com/4192376/hawaii-councilman-tinder/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-25T16:15:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:08:33.336Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hawaiian Politician Who Used Tinder to Find Voters Got More Than He Bargained For og:description: "I learned the hard way" og:url: https://time.com/4192376/hawaii-councilman-tinder/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hawaiian Politician Who Used Tinder to Find Voters Got More Than He Bargained For twitter:description: "I learned the hard way" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Hawaiian Politician Who Used Tinder to Find Voters Got More Than He Bargained For > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 25, 2016 4:15 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 25, 2016 4:15 PM UTC A Hawaiian politician who is seeking higher office [went on Tinder to connect with voters](http://www.civilbeat.com/2016/01/hawaii-councilman-uses-tinder-in-senate-campaign/)—but many singles on the mobile dating app missed his point entirely, he said. Hawaii County Councilman [Greggor Ilagan](https://www.facebook.com/greggorilagan/) created a profile to start conversations about political change, he told the Honolulu _Civil Beat_. But the innocent effort did little to help his campaign. “At first, I put both genders—male and female,” said Ilagan, who is running for state senate (and happens to be single). “But because it’s a dating site, there were actually a lot of guys that were hitting on me.” “I was always having to direct people back to the main focus,” he added. “They asked me, ‘Oh, can I have a date?’ And I said, ‘Well, we can have a meeting and we can talk about government and maybe you can help out on the campaign.’” Ilagan, 29, said his agenda was laid out on his [Tinder](http://time.com/4190222/tinder-adds-std-testing-center-locator/) profile page, where he wrote: “Hey you! Help me make a positive difference in our community. Swipe right and let’s talk,” according to the _Civil Beat_. “This year, I am running for State Senate. I bet we can find common ground on issues and make a positive impact around us. Swipe right and let’s get to know each other,” the message continued. “I thought the one-on-one interaction would be great, but it just leads to other things,” he said. “Now I know why people don’t campaign on it. Tinder just has a different environment and different expectation. I learned the hard way.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4192376/hawaii-councilman-tinder/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4192376/hawaii-councilman-tinder/"},"headline":"Hawaiian Politician Who Used Tinder to Find Voters Got More Than He Bargained For","datePublished":"2016-01-25T16:15:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:08:33.336Z","description":"\"I learned the hard way\"","url":"https://time.com/4192376/hawaii-councilman-tinder/","keywords":["hawaii"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/hawaii/","name":"hawaii"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4192376/hawaii-councilman-tinder/","name":"Hawaiian Politician Who Used Tinder to Find Voters Got More Than He Bargained For"}}]}] ```