Six candidates vie for Kauai County mayor in Aug. 8 primary

Ballots have been arriving in mailboxes statewide ahead of the Aug. 8 primary, and Kauai voters will choose from six candidates for an open mayor’s seat. Derek S.K. Kawakami is term-limited, putting the county’s top executive job in play for the first time in this cycle.

What is at stake in the mayor’s office is concrete and immediate. The county charter places the mayor at the head of the executive branch, and county finance and staffing records show the job sits over the departments that keep roads moving, water systems working, permits flowing and emergency plans ready when a break, closure or fire threat hits. On an island where county service delays are felt fast, the race is less about ceremony than about who will run the machinery of county government.

The field built early. Kauai Now reported in February that three candidates were already running for mayor, and by late July KHON2 said six people were in the race. The names that have drawn the most attention are familiar to county voters: Bernard Carvalho, Mel Rapozo and Felicia Cowden. County records list Rapozo as council chair and identify Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr. and Cowden as councilmembers in 2024 and 2025 materials.

That gives voters a clear governing contrast. Carvalho would return to the county’s top executive post after serving as mayor before, Rapozo would move from the council chair to the office that executes policy, and Cowden would shift from legislative oversight to direct administration. The other three candidates round out a six-person field that has already forced the campaign onto bread-and-butter county issues, not abstract slogans.

Housing, infrastructure, cost of living, tourism pressure and wildfire readiness have dominated the public conversation. KHON2 said the candidates were talking about housing, infrastructure and cost of living, while the Kauai Chamber of Commerce circulated a candidate survey to press contenders on county priorities. For voters, the decision now is whether to keep county government in the hands of familiar insiders or hand the executive branch to a new manager before the next road closure, water failure or emergency.