Hawaii committee calls for statue of Barack Obama in his birth state

The resolution said the US thrived under Obama’s presidency, noting that the national deficit shrank by two-thirds and 16 million Americans were able to obtain health care through the Affordable Care Act adopted during his administration. It noted Obama was only the third African-American to hold a US Senate seat since Reconstruction after he was elected from Illinois.

Statues of several prominent Hawaii historical figures populate the area around the Hawaii State Capitol in downtown Honolulu. A statue of King Kamehameha the Great, who unified the Hawaiian Islands under his rule in the early 1800s, stands in front of the Hawaii Supreme Court. Statues of Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last monarch, and Saint Damien, a Catholic priest who cared for leprosy patients, stand outside the State Capitol building.