On Saturday the Democratic Party of Hawaii got a new chair: Kate Stanley.

Stanley, who had been serving as the party’s national committeewoman, replaces Kealii Lopez, who resigned last week to be executive director of AARP Hawaii.

The vote was conducted by the party’s State Central Committee.

Stanley came to Hawaii in 1967 as a volunteer with VISTA, the national service program. She was assigned to the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center to work in Waimanalo.

A veteran Democrat and former state legislator, Stanley was senior advisor to Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

“My primary concerns, along with the SCS, are to carry out the precinct elections, the presidential preference poll and the state convention,” said Stanley, whose interim post lasts until May 23-24 at the 2020 convention.