Kaiser took his first politician position in 1981 as chairman of the
Carinthian socialist youth, later in 1986 he became member of the Carinthian
Gemeinderat and held this office until 1989. Kaiser was member of the Carinthian
Landtag from 1989 to 1994, 1997, 2001 to July 2008, and from November 2005 on as
parliamentary leader of the
SPÖ. In July 2008 he became state consultant for health and sports. In 2010 Kaiser succeeded Reinhart Rohr (who left the government) as chairman of the
SPÖ Carinthia and thus became second deputy governor. Beate Prettner replaced Kaiser in his position as state councilor. On 3 March 2013 the SPÖ became the biggest party again for the first time since 1994, through Kaiser as their top-candidate after the
2013 Carinthian state elections. Subsequently, he was elected governor by the Carinthian
Landtag with 30 of 36 votes, and thus succeeded former officeholder
Gerhard Dörfler of the
Freedom Party. At his inaugural speech Kaiser spoke some words in
Slovenian, the second regional language, he was the first Carinthian
head of government to do so. On 2 April 2013 Kaiser was sworn in as governor of Carinthia by
Federal President Heinz Fischer. At the
2018 Carinthian state election the
SPÖ once again grew bigger by gaining 10.8 percentage points under Kaiser as their top candidate. On 16 April 2018 he was officially confirmed in his position by President
Alexander Van der Bellen. == Personal life ==