Kapaa forum gives Kauai voters a close look at candidates

With four of Kauai County Council’s seven seats open and Mayor Derek Kawakami term-limited, Kapaa voters got one of the first structured chances to compare 23 candidates face to face at Ohana Christian Fellowship hall.

The Kapaa Business Association’s third biennial political forum put mayoral candidates, County Council hopefuls and state House contenders on the same stage, each with three minutes to introduce themselves before a question-and-answer period began. Jacqueline Manibusan, the association president, moderated the event, and KKCR recorded the forum so residents who missed the hall could still hear the presentations later.

The stakes were unusually high. Kauai County Council is a seven-member body elected at large, and the top seven vote-getters in the general election win seats. Four council seats were open in 2026, only the second time in 30 years that so many had been available at once. As of May 18, the Office of Elections listed seven candidates for Kauai mayor and 32 candidates for the seven council seats, while state election officials had set the primary for Aug. 8 and the general election for Nov. 3. Candidate filing closes June 2.

That means the field will keep moving, but the forum gave voters a first look at who is already in the race and how they handled the same clock, the same room and the same questions. On the mayoral side, the contest to replace Kawakami already includes Mel Rapozo, Bernard Carvalho Jr. and Felicia Cowden. The council field includes incumbent faces and a wider group competing for one of the island’s most powerful decision-making bodies.

The policy backdrop is hard to ignore. Civil Beat reported that Kauai’s median-priced single-family home was $1.1 million, a number that captures why housing, growth, infrastructure, the budget, zoning and long-term island governance are likely to dominate the campaign. Former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka attended the forum and said she was proud of the turnout because it showed people care about the island’s future. Longtime council watcher Ken Taylor also took part in the exchange.

For the Kapaa Business Association, which says it was incorporated in 1999 and now has more than 60 business members, the forum served as more than a campaign stop. It was a recurring civic checkpoint, one of the few early chances for Kauai voters to compare the people seeking control of county policy before the ballot is mailed and the field closes on June 2.