George Ariyoshi

George Ariyoshi

George Ryoichi Ariyoshi (有吉良一, born March 12, 1926), served as the third Governor of Hawaii from 1974 to 1986. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He assumed the governorship when John A. Burns was declared incapacitated. When he was elected, Ariyoshi became the first American of Asian descent to be elected governor of a state of the United States. He also holds the record as the longest-serving state governor in Hawaiʻi, a record that will likely never be broken because of term limits. Ariyoshi is now considered an elder statesman of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi.