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California Legislature · Statewide General Election

Member of the State Assembly, District 1

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term).

Assemblymember Heather Hadwick took 48.7% of the June 2 vote and Democrat Dianna Margaret James took 38.5%, sending both to the November 3 runoff; Republican Darin Hale finished third with 12.8% and is off the ballot. District 1 covers the rural northeast corner of the state, from Modoc and Siskiyou down through Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador and Alpine.

The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for their district's share of the annual state budget. In a district this large and this far from the Capitol, much of the job is securing money and attention for communities that are a long drive from every decision.

Both candidates are running on rural economic development, water and land, and neither is campaigning on a party-line message — so the choice turns less on the issues named than on how each would work. One is an incumbent asking to continue an approach built on working inside the majority; the other is a challenger proposing a different method for the same problems. Weigh which theory of influence you find more plausible for a district whose representative will be in the minority party or the majority's margins either way.

Heather Hadwick

Republican, the sitting Assemblymember for this district, a Modoc County family farmer who worked as a teacher and as the county's Deputy OES director before her election. Her campaign says she "serves to give the people of Northern California a strong voice in Sacramento," and she names rural healthcare, keeping small schools funded, and reopening timber and logging as her priorities. She is lead author of 35 bills this session, 6 of them signed into law.

Strengths

A two-year record in the seat, committee seats on agriculture, budget and emergency management, and 6 bills signed into law.

Trade-offs

Her approach depends on collaboration inside a majority she is not part of, which is a method rather than a result.

Keep in mind

A primary opponent criticized her firearms and guardianship legislation during the campaign; per Shasta Scout, that criticism came from a candidate who did not advance and no other outlet corroborated it.

Dianna Margaret James

Democrat, a Mount Shasta resident who describes herself as "a 5th generation Californian" and spent her career as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. State Department and a field aid specialist working with USAID. Her campaign runs on "Good jobs. Clean water. Open land," and she has proposed hiring grantwriters for the district, incentives for wildfire home-hardening, and recruitment incentives for healthcare providers. She has not held elected office in California.

Strengths

Twenty-five years advising governments on institutional reform, and a specific list of asks aimed at money the district does not currently claim.

Trade-offs

No record in California office to judge her against, and her pledge to work across the spectrum is a stated intention rather than a demonstrated one.

Keep in mind

She raised $735,439 to Hadwick's $506,358, an unusual position for a challenger in a district that voted 48.7% Republican in June.

Record in office

Heather Hadwick (Republican) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 6 of them signed into law. Dianna Margaret James has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-08-10.

Record details

Hadwick — AB 889 (2025): Prevailing wage: per diem wages. Hadwick — AB 438 (2025): Authorized emergency vehicles. Hadwick — AB 993 (2025): Hazardous materials management: Rural CUPA Reimbursement Account. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record.

Financial info

Heather Hadwick

$506,358raised
  • Small donors$870<1%
  • Individuals$37,7758%
  • PACs & committees$247,27150%
  • Businesses & other orgs$212,80043%

Dianna Margaret James

$735,439raised
  • Small donors$864<1%
  • Individuals$118,57516%
  • PACs & committees$236,85032%
  • Party$2,000<1%
  • Businesses & other orgs$376,78351%

Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-22.

June 2 primary — how they advanced

Heather Hadwick (Republican)48.7% · 79,748 votes
Dianna Margaret James (Democratic)38.5% · 63,056 votes
Darin Hale (Republican)12.8% · 21,012 votes
Source review: Strong (86/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Vote Heather Hadwick and Dianna James for California Assembly AD-1 may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

Last updated August 10, 2026.