Honolulu mayoral candidate Kirk Caldwell rushed onto the stage a few minutes ago amid a ruckus round of applause from a few hundred supporters at Aloha Tower Marketplace.

He stepped up to the mic with a confident smile and thanked grinning, cheering, sign-waving supporters. 

“We know in this room we’ve been feeling this momentum for at least a month and in the last two weeks it’s just poured in,” Caldwell said, his immediate and extended family behind him on the stage. “We couldn’t have gotten to where we are today without you. You know that. You made the difference. And I want to thank you, and I’ll be thanking you the rest of my life for what we did, whether we win or don’t win, but the trend is great!”

Caldwell urged the crowd to stick around for the second round of election results, which came in seconds after he stepped down from the stage. Up 14,639 votes, he maintained his lead over Ben Cayetano, 53 percent to 45 percent.

— Nathan Eagle