Cheree Rapozo files to run for Kaua‘i County Council seat

Cheree Rapozo’s filing on May 7 pushed Kauai’s 2026 County Council race further into view at a moment when the island’s political map is already unusually fluid. With four of the seven council seats open this year, the contest will help shape decisions on housing, infrastructure, affordability and county services that residents deal with every day.

The Hawaii Office of Elections lists all seven Kauai County Council seats as up in 2026. Council members serve two-year terms and can serve no more than four consecutive two-year terms, a structure that keeps turnover moving quickly. That matters this year because the filing period ran from Feb. 2 through June 2, and Rapozo entered during the final weeks of that window.

The broader field already shows how much change is in play. Honolulu Civil Beat reported in March that three councilmembers, Mel Rapozo, Bernard Carvalho Jr. and Felicia Cowden, were running for mayor, while Vice Chair KipuKai Kuali‘i was term-limited. That left four of the seven seats open before the filing period had even closed, a setup that could alter both the balance of the council and the geographic and political makeup of county leadership after the election.

Voters have also already begun seeing candidates in public settings. The Garden Island reported a May 16 Kapaa Business Association political forum that included county council candidates, and on June 2 the paper reported that Trysten Fernandes Caberto filed nomination papers on May 28 for Kauai Councilmember. Those appearances suggest the race is not waiting for the general election calendar to start taking shape. It is already being formed in community rooms, at local forums and through the county filing process itself.

Rapozo also enters with a surname that carries recognition in Kauai politics. The Garden Island previously ran a 2002 archive item about a Rapozo seeking a council seat, and Mel Rapozo is now listed as council chair on the state elections page. Kauaivotes.org said Cheree Rapozo filed during the final stretch of the filing period and that no platform material was available for review in May. For voters trying to judge what a new council might mean for daily life on island, that leaves the filing itself as the clearest marker so far: the race is active, the field is still shifting and the decisions ahead will land on issues residents feel in housing costs, road conditions and county service levels.