Jeremy Haupt files for Kauai County Council seat in 2026 race

Jeremy R. Haupt’s filing for Kauai County Council widened a race that is already starting to take shape around the island’s most immediate pressures: housing, roads, land use and public safety spending. His nomination papers were filed April 23, putting another name into the 2026 Primary Election for one of the county’s seven council seats.

That matters because the Kauai County Council is the legislative branch of the County of Kauai, and all seven members are elected at the same time to two-year terms. Whoever wins will help decide budgets and priorities that reach into daily life in Līhue, Kapaa, Kōloa, Hanapēpē and beyond, from infrastructure repairs to how the county responds to cost-of-living strain.

Haupt’s entry comes during the filing period that opened Feb. 2 and runs through June 2 at 4:30 p.m. The primary is scheduled for Aug. 8, with the general election set for Nov. 3. The state Office of Elections said its candidate report, updated Monday through Friday after 4:30 p.m., was last updated April 28, placing Haupt’s filing squarely in the middle of an active candidate season.

The race had already begun to expand before Haupt filed. Earlier April coverage showed other council hopefuls entering the contest, including Kalaniumi Martin, Michelle Kaleiohi Correa, Dane Smith, Herman K. Wilson and Nelson Mukai. That early list suggests the 2026 council contest is not likely to be a quiet one, especially if more candidates keep filing before the June deadline.

The filing also fits a larger political picture. In a July 2023 opinion piece, Gary Hooser wrote that 2026 could bring at least three, and possibly four, open Kauai County Council seats because of term limits and possible mayoral bids. If that projection holds, the field could become both more crowded and more defined, with candidates pressed to separate themselves on the issues that hit island households most directly.

For county voters, Haupt’s candidacy is less about a single paper filing than about what it signals: another step toward a council race where the fight over who speaks for Kauai may increasingly center on the cost of living, the pace of public works, and whether the county can move faster on the problems residents see every day.