# Member of the State Assembly, District 30 Compare records and positions simply between Shannon Kessler or Dawn Addis for Member of the State Assembly, District 30 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-30 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Shannon Kessler** — Children's Advocate/Businesswoman · Republican - **Dawn Addis** — State Assemblymember/Teacher · Democratic · Incumbent Assemblymember Dawn Addis took 54.8% of the June 2 vote and Republican Shannon Kessler took 35.9%. At an 18.9-point gap this was 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 the San Luis Coastal Unified School District for more than two decades. She earned degrees in art education, Spanish and special education, and served on the Morro Bay City Council from 2018 to 2022 (campaign site). Elected to the Assembly in 2022, she became the first Democrat from San Luis Obispo County to hold the seat since 1922, and the first Democratic woman to hold it at all. She now chairs Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and the Select Committee on Serving Students with Disabilities (campaign site). She describes her approach as "listening and solving problems in order to make our home an even better place to live" (campaign site). This session she authored AB 2254, with coauthors Assemblymembers Zbur and Hart, to protect monarch butterfly habitat along the coast. The Legislature's Appropriations Committee held the bill under submission in August 2026, so it did not advance this year (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). She promises to keep pushing for fully funded schools, expanded health care access, environmental protection and fewer barriers to college. Those are priorities she has pursued since co-founding the Women's March in San Luis Obispo. She has also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Central Coast Action Fund (campaign site). **Strengths:** She chairs a budget subcommittee and a select committee on disability services, and has a specific record beyond her titles, including bills on coastal and health policy. **Trade-offs:** Not every bill she authors becomes law; her higher-profile bill this year, on monarch habitat, stalled in committee rather than reaching the floor. **Keep in mind:** She won her second term with under 55%, the narrowest margin of any Assembly incumbent on this ballot, in a district Republicans are actively contesting. ## Shannon Kessler Shannon Kessler, a sixth-generation Central Coast resident married for 38 years, co-owns a family construction and real estate business (campaign site). She has served as an Arroyo Grande Parks and Recreation commissioner and PTA president. In 2023 she co-founded Save Girls' Sports Central Coast, which advocates reserving school sports, locker rooms and bathrooms "for biological females only." She also founded a civic engagement group called Culture Impact (campaign site; New Times SLO). She told New Times SLO that a school board's response to parents' concerns "motivated me to run for office — partly to advocate for parental rights." She has said it is "time to change some of these harmful laws" on school sports policy. That is a position she has organized around publicly since 2023 (New Times SLO). She promises to prioritize public safety, affordability and accountability, and says school authority should return to parents "rather than politicians." On regulation, she opposes rules that force companies "to replace vehicles that still have years of useful life left." She says she would judge energy projects "on their actual merits — including nuclear power" rather than by whether they carry a "green" label (campaign site). **Strengths:** She has built two community organizations from scratch and can point to a specific record of local civic involvement most first-time candidates cannot show. **Trade-offs:** She has no record in elected office, and her signature issue, reserving school sports and facilities by sex, is contested by some parents and students in the district. **Keep in mind:** Her platform is documented mainly through her own campaign materials and one candidate interview; independent reporting on her positions beyond those is limited. ## 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. ## Record details Addis — AB 1907 (2026): California Health Benefit Exchange. Addis — AB 2731 (2026): Alcoholic beverage control: neighborhood-restricted on-sale general licenses. Addis — AB 1159 (2026): Student personal information. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Shannon Kessler** - Primary: $158,638 raised (Small donors: $3,237; Individuals: $22,693; Businesses & other orgs: $250; Self-funding: $161,389) - November: No itemized funding reported yet. - **Dawn Addis** - Primary: $758,691 raised (Small donors: $23,926; Individuals: $168,790; PACs & committees: $370,010; Businesses & other orgs: $194,300) - November: $29,146 raised (Individuals: $4,846; PACs & committees: $13,300; Businesses & other orgs: $11,000) 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. ## Review notes - Dawn Addis for Assembly and Shannon Kessler for CA Assembly may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Dawn Addis for Assembly — About page (biography, committee assignments, motivation quote)](https://dawnaddis.org/about/) 4. [California Legislative Information — AB 2254 (Addis) bill status: monarch butterfly habitat, held under submission in Appropriations (used for the bill's outcome)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2254) 5. [Shannon Kessler for CA Assembly — campaign site (biography, priorities, platform quotes)](https://www.kesslerforca.com/) 6. [New Times SLO — Arroyo Grande parents' rights advocate Shannon Kessler runs for Assembly (motivation quote, Save Girls' Sports founding)](https://www.newtimesslo.com/news/arroyo-grande-parents-rights-advocate-shannon-kessler-runs-for-assembly/) 7. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 8. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 30 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 30 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-30 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.