Incumbent Faces Councilman In Race For State’s Biggest House District

A familiar face on the Big Island is challenging a six-year incumbent in the Democratic primary this year to represent the state’s largest geographic House district. 

Jeanne Kapela has held the District 5 seat — which covers nearly 2,000 square miles from Keaʻau to south Kona — since 2020. She’s faced a primary challenger twice, once in 2020 and again in 2024, but her opponents then were political newcomers and Kapela beat them with well over 50% of the vote. 

Her challenger in this year’s primary is more well known. Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder has been a Hawaiʻi County Council member since 2018 and represents upper Puna from Kea‘au to Royal Hawaiian Estates near Kīlauea.

District 5 is mostly rural with about 28,000 residents, largely made up of farmers and growing bedroom communities such as Ocean View. Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder plans to try to win them over with a platform that’s principally focused on improving state highways in response to the recent string of fatal crashes on the island.

“We all live on the same island, we all know what the problems are,” he said. “So, when we don't do things, it's just avoidance.”

Kapela is welcoming the competition but remains confident, especially in the work she’s done so far at the Capitol. She’s largely prioritized infrastructure, cost of living and healthcare issues.

“We need people who are willing to serve with their whole heart, and I have done that for the last six years, and I will continue to do it as long as my community allows me to,” she said. 

'Funding And Political Will'

When Civil Beat spoke to Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder in April he said he had no plans to run for a different seat after he terms out on the council in December. But the fatal crashes on the island’s state highways, including the death of a resident in his council district, pushed him to seek higher office. 

Five people died in a two-month span on Saddle Road, a state highway that connects West and East Hawaiʻi, prompting the state Department of Transportation to declare a traffic emergency zone and repave sections of the road. There were also fatal car crashes on other state roads, including Highway 11 and Highway 130, during the same time. Police have issued more than 1,000 tickets in June as part of stepped up enforcement on Saddle Road alone.

Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder, whose wife Dawn is running against four other candidates to fill his seat on the council, said he’s received calls from his constituents during his time on the council asking him to fix the highways connecting his community to Hilo and Kona. But those roads weren’t his jurisdiction as a councilman. He said he’s been raising those concerns to state lawmakers for years with no luck.

A journeyman electrician by trade, Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder has lived in ʻŌlaʻa since 2006. During his time on council, he championed issues ranging from dangerous dog laws to invasive species and renewable energy. But it was transportation where he’s had the most success.

He secured millions in funding for road improvements in his district and passed legislation to make bus fares for Hele-On free. In Upper Puna, residents and community associations have praised him for his work to pave and maintain private subdivision roads.

Residents in Hawaiian Acres, Orchidlands Estates and across Puna have been asking the county for decades for help maintaining the roads after developers left maintenance to homeowners. 

In 2024, Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder introduced and passed Bill 82, which allows the county to maintain private roads, and he secured nearly a million dollars in the operating budget over the last two years to pave arterial roads in the subdivisions. He also passed Bill 38, a tax credit for private subdivision residents who pay road fees to the associations in charge of maintaining them. 

But Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder's reputation is limited to his council district, which only overlaps a small portion of House District 5. Running on a platform focused on fixing the state highways – a topic that’s getting attention from many Big Island residents — could help him with that, according to University of Hawaiʻi political analyst Colin Moore.

“For a challenger that's probably the way to go,” Moore said. “As a campaign platform, it makes sense to me. It's concrete, it's easy to understand, it'll probably get him some attention more than a more amorphous issue like affordable housing.”

More: Dramatic Shakeup Coming To Hawai‘i County Council

Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder said he suspected the engineering of the roadways is the reason for the frequent crashes. He also said the state highway that runs through House District 5 needs to be widened and repaved. 

The recent crashes on the Big Island are a concern of Kapela’s as well. She joined a recent signwaving effort to promote road safety after May and June’s string of fatalities. She also supported using some disaster funds issued after the Kona lows to repave parts of Highway 11 in Nāʻālehu, Kapela said, and has been attempting to get DOT to repave the stretch of highway between Kea‘au and Volcano.

But Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder said state legislators woke up to the issue only after the numerous fatal crashes got attention in the news. 

“It just took how many people dying for the state to finally go do the work,” he said. “It's as simple as funding and political will and getting a cohesive legislative push together to address (the highways) because they know what the problem is.”

'A Record Of Showing Up'

Kapela’s life experience has inspired much of her work as a legislator, she said. She was born and raised in Captain Cook and grew up in poverty. She’s also a classically trained ballerina and was crowned Miss Hawaiʻi in 2015. 

She chairs the House Culture and Arts Committee and co-chairs the working family caucus. Kapela is one of few Native Hawaiians at the Capitol and is part of the Native Hawaiian caucus. Her work at the Legislature has largely been focused on education and affordability issues as well arts funding.

“The district is the largest in the state, so I have numerous communities within the district that are so unique,” she said. “But infrastructure, water access, affordability and health care issues — that's the common theme throughout every part of my district.”

This past session, which wrapped up in early May, Kapela helped get millions in funding for the Big Island. She secured $2.5 million to purchase property in Kaʻū to potentially build out an agricultural park, which she says will provide much-needed economic development for the rural district. She and the Big Island delegation also brought hundreds of millions of state dollars home for projects such as a new outpatient center in North Kona. 

She's co-introduced numerous bills that have become law but is most proud of one she helped pass in 2025 to expand the preschool open doors programs to 2-year-olds. 

Few bills she introduced herself have passed. She said the legislation that failed could have significantly helped District 5 residents and families and plans to try again if she's reelected, such as bills to recruit more bus drivers and one that would have given direct financial support for expectant mothers. 

“There are north stars for me that we are going to keep shooting for,” Kapela said. 

She wants to focus on creating resilience hubs and increasing water access for families and farmers. Most homes in her district are reliant on catchment systems – many of which were destroyed during a recent earthquake. 

She said the district desperately needs more economic development and opportunities, but nothing can get done without water. Kapela plans to leverage her relationships with the county to expand county water supply to her district, she said. 

“Until we can figure out the water issue, and until we have stronger folks at the county who are willing to help us focus on those issues, I think we're going to continue to struggle,” she said. 

What the district needs the most though, she said, is a legislator who shows up.

Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder came under fire recently from constituents and his fellow council members for his frequent absences from meetings. He's missed nine council meetings since 2025. Kapela missed floor sessions twice this year and only once for the full day, according to House attendance logs.

“The district is so rural and it needs so much support, and more than anything, it needs legislators and electeds who have a record of showing up and a record of being in the community,” Kapela said. 

Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder said his absences were due to two deaths in his family and he voted in favor of new attendance rules for the county council. 

Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder's attention to state highways will only take him so far, Moore said. The councilman's lack of funding and endorsements could be signs his attempt to unseat Kapela will prove futile, he said. Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder hasn't announced any endorsements and had raised $250 this election period from a single donor, according to his most recent campaign finance report, which covered the last half of 2025 before he announced his decision to run. He had $3,900 in campaign cash on hand.

Kapela raised over $12,000 during the same six-month period. She's received funding from multiple prominent labor unions and fellow Big Island legislators Chris Todd and Nicole Lowen as well as House Speaker Nadine Nakamura. She's also secured endorsement from the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association and the Hawaiʻi Government Employees Association — two of the most influential groups. She had $9,600 on hand as of Dec. 31, according to her most recent report.

“Incumbents are really hard to beat in Hawaiʻi,” Moore said. “They have an over 90% success rate of being reelected.”

Voters can expect to receive their mail-in ballot by July 21. The primary election is Aug. 8. The winner of the Democratic primary will face uncontested Republican Dalene McCormick of Captain Cook in the Nov. 3 general election.