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Member of the State Assembly, District 30

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State of California

Member of the State Assembly, District 30

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

Assemblymember Dawn Addis took 54.8% of the June 2 vote. Republican Shannon Kessler took 35.9%. That 18.9-point gap made this a closer primary than most incumbents on this ballot faced. The district runs along the Central Coast through San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties.

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 the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. A coastal district brings water, agriculture and housing questions that run through several committees at once.

The incumbent took under 55% in a primary, which is a weaker showing than most of her colleagues managed and worth reading as a signal about the district rather than a prediction. Both candidates have meaningful individual support; they differ in that one has a legislative record and a broad donor base, and the other is largely financing her own campaign.

Dawn Addis

Dawn Addis taught in San Luis Obispo County public schools for more than 20 years. Before that, she served on the Morro Bay City Council from 2018 to 2022. She was elected to the Assembly in 2022. She is the first Democrat from San Luis Obispo County to hold the seat since 1922. She now chairs a budget subcommittee on health. She has authored bills on coastal protection, health care and disability services.

She says her approach is listening and solving problems. Her goal, she says, is to make the Central Coast an even better place to live. This year she authored a bill to protect monarch butterfly habitat along the coast. The Assembly's budget committee held it back in August. It did not move forward this session.

She promises to keep fighting for fully funded schools. She wants wider health care access and environmental protection too. She also says she wants to cut the barriers students face to college.

Shannon Kessler

Shannon Kessler shares ownership of a family construction and real estate business on the Central Coast. She has served as an Arroyo Grande parks commissioner and PTA president. In 2023 she founded Save Girls' Sports Central Coast. The group pushes to reserve school sports, locker rooms and bathrooms for biological females. She also started a civic group called Culture Impact.

She says a school board's response to parents' concerns motivated her to run. Part of her goal, she says, is to advocate for parental rights. The policy she has pushed hardest is reserving girls' sports and school facilities for biological females. Her group has organized around that position since 2023.

She promises to focus on public safety, affordability and accountability. She says she wants to return more authority over schools to parents. She also promises to support small businesses. She opposes rules she says regulate them too heavily.

Record in office

Shannon Kessler has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Dawn Addis (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 13 of them signed into law. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21.

Financial info

Shannon Kessler

Primary — $158,638

$158,638raised
  • Small donors$3,2372%
  • Individuals$22,69312%
  • Businesses & other orgs$250<1%
  • Self-funding$161,38986%

November

No itemized funding reported yet.

Dawn Addis

Primary — $758,691

$758,691raised
  • Small donors$23,9263%
  • Individuals$168,79022%
  • PACs & committees$370,01049%
  • Businesses & other orgs$194,30026%

November — $29,146

$29,146raised
  • Individuals$4,84617%
  • PACs & committees$13,30046%
  • Businesses & other orgs$11,00038%

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 2026-09-21.

Shannon Kessler has no itemized contributions dated after the June 2, 2026 primary reported to Cal-Access yet.

Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 30, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30.

Your pick

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