In the US most local elected offices are nonpartisan, meaning the candidate is not running as a member of a political party.

Other people who called themselves "Greens" had been elected to local government offices in the United States prior to Keiko Bonk, but they were not representing a legally established political party.

In the United States, it is very difficult to win an election in a partisan race if the candidate does not run as a Democrat or Republican.

Keiko Bonk was the first person in the United States to run as a representative of the Green Party and beat a Republican and Democrat.

Bill and Fumie were both stalwart figures in the progressive wing of the Hawaii Democratic Party, working for decades to elect many of the states most prominent politicians.

Keiko grew up making art with her mother, working on archeological digs with her father, and participating in electoral politics with both.

Bonk went on to achieve a master of fine arts degree from Hunter College in New York City in 1982.

She moved to Honolulu with her second husband, Michael Christopher, when he returned to school to pursue a second doctoral degree.

Bonk worked as the Executive Director of the Hawaii branch of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI).

In 2012 Keiko Bonk was nominated as the Green Party candidate for Hawaii House of Representatives, 20th district.