McKinleyville business owner Evan Schwartz seeks Fifth District supervisor seat

Evan Schwartz is trying to turn years of building businesses in McKinleyville into a case for county power. The business owner wants the Fifth District supervisor seat, an open race that will affect decisions from Fieldbrook and Trinidad to Hoopa, Orleans, Orick, Weitchpec, Westhaven and Willow Creek.

Schwartz entered the race in March 2026 as a late challenger after filing candidacy paperwork for the seat now held by Steve Madrone. He has lived in McKinleyville full time since 2010, came to Humboldt County in 2003 to attend College of the Redwoods, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Cal Poly Humboldt. Over the years, Schwartz and his wife founded and ran McKinleyville Central Market for about five years, then launched Craft Beer Distribution Company and Cause Water, both of which were sold. He is now doing assorted small-business work, including selling local items through Amazon, product brokering and renting out his RV through Outdoorsy. Schwartz has called himself a “regular person” and said he wants to be “a public servant.”

The seat carries more weight than a single community profile suggests. Humboldt County’s Board of Supervisors is the county’s legislative and executive body, with five full-time members elected from separate geographic districts. The Fifth District reaches coastal and inland communities that often feel county decisions directly, especially around land use, housing, transportation and public services. Madrone is not seeking reelection in 2026, turning the contest into an open-seat race, and he has endorsed Mary Burke.

Schwartz’s pitch has sharpened against the county’s financial pressure. County staff were projecting a $12 million structural deficit in 2026, and Schwartz said at an April 25 forum in McKinleyville that he was running on transparency, communication, economic stability and efficient county services. At that forum, both Fifth District candidates backed streamlining permitting and improving infrastructure. A separate hour-long forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Humboldt County and KEET-TV on May 19 kept the race in front of voters as the campaign moved toward the primary.

For Fifth District voters, the choice is not just about biography. It is about whether a business owner who built and sold local companies should help steer county government through budget strain, permitting disputes and infrastructure demands, with an emphasis on efficiency and economic development.