# Member of the State Assembly, District 40 Compare records and positions simply between Pilar Schiavo or Rickey Tracy Hayes II for Member of the State Assembly, District 40 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-40 - 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: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Pilar Schiavo** — Assemblymember · Democratic · Incumbent - **Rickey Tracy Hayes II** — Lineman/Entrepreneur/Businessman · Republican Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo took 55.6% of the June 2 vote and Republican Rickey Tracy Hayes II took 22.3% to claim the second slot. At 55.6% the incumbent barely cleared a majority in her own primary. The district covers Santa Clarita and the northwestern edge of Los Angeles County. 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. Committee assignment is where most of the leverage sits, and it is handed out by the majority's leadership. Two numbers frame this race. The incumbent took only 55.6% in her own primary, one of the weaker showings by a sitting member on this ballot; and she raised more than $1.3 million, of which $967,350 — roughly seven of every ten dollars — came from PACs and committees. Read together, they describe a seat that is considered competitive and is being defended with institutional money. ## Pilar Schiavo Pilar Schiavo is a nurse advocate and small-business owner with more than 20 years in the labor movement. She was elected to the Assembly in 2022 and reelected in 2024. She was appointed Assistant Majority Whip and now chairs the Assembly Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs (assembly website). Before Sacramento she co-founded an organization that helped secure housing for veterans experiencing homelessness in the Northwest San Fernando Valley. Through her earlier work in health care, she also helped expand access to reproductive health care for more than a million people (assembly website). For two years Schiavo has worked on legislation responding to the underground fire at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. Residents in Val Verde, Castaic and Santa Clarita have reported chronic nosebleeds, migraines, tremors, vision loss and other symptoms. Her AB 28, the Landfill Safety Act, requires landfill operators to alert regulators and take corrective action when subsurface temperatures spike. It also creates a multi-agency response team for future incidents. Governor Newsom signed it into law on September 20, 2026 (assembly website; California Legislature bill history). "No one should have to choose between staying in their home and protecting their family," Schiavo said when the bill passed committee (assembly website). Schiavo's campaign promises to keep working on the cost of living — "gas, groceries, insurance, and housing," in her words (campaign site). She also says she has brought state funding home for schools, community safety, seniors and veterans without raising taxes (campaign site). "I'm a single mom, and prior to serving in the Assembly I was a small business owner — I know firsthand how hard it is to pay the bills," she says (campaign site). **Strengths:** A landfill safety law now on the books, written directly in response to an ongoing toxic fire in her own district. **Trade-offs:** Her committee assignments and leadership post reflect an experienced legislator, not a change from what voters already have. **Keep in mind:** She cleared a majority in her primary by a narrow margin for an incumbent, in a district her own party still treats as worth defending closely. ## Rickey Tracy Hayes II Rickey T. Hayes is a Marine Corps veteran, born and raised in Compton and Long Beach, who has lived in Santa Clarita for more than 13 years (campaign site). He worked as a custody officer and then a police officer. He later became a journeyman lineman with IBEW Local 47 and eventually an energy-infrastructure executive involved in building and modernizing California's power grid (campaign site). Hayes says he is running for Assembly District 40 to "secure our neighborhoods, rebuild our energy grid, and restore the California Dream for working families" (campaign site). He argues that "Sacramento has enough activists — it's time to send a builder" (campaign site). He points to his military service, his law-enforcement career and his years in the electrical trade as the basis for that claim (campaign site). Hayes's platform calls for "commonsense leadership that prioritizes safe communities, affordable living, reliable energy, and opportunities for the next generation" (campaign site). He frames public safety, grid reliability and support for working families as his central promises (campaign site). He points to his law-enforcement and energy-industry background as evidence he can carry them out (campaign site). **Strengths:** A background spanning the Marine Corps, law enforcement and building the state's power grid — a specific, verifiable resume for a first campaign. **Trade-offs:** No record in any office to judge, and no news coverage beyond his own campaign material was found to test his claims. **Keep in mind:** He is framing himself as a builder rather than a political insider. How much that resume translates into legislating is the decision this profile leaves to you. ## Record in office Pilar Schiavo (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 34 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 13 of them signed into law. Rickey Tracy Hayes II 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 2026-09-21. ## Record details Schiavo — AB 2147 (2026): Criminal procedure: jurisdiction of public offenses. Schiavo — AB 301 (2025): Planning and zoning: housing development projects: postentitlement phase permits: state agencies. Schiavo — AB 656 (2025): Account cancellation. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Pilar Schiavo** - Primary: $1,335,478 raised (Small donors: $1,018; Individuals: $42,795; PACs & committees: $967,350; Businesses & other orgs: $195,133) - November: $35,250 raised (Individuals: $5,950; PACs & committees: $15,500; Businesses & other orgs: $13,800) - **Rickey Tracy Hayes II** - Primary: $47,442 raised (Small donors: $865; Individuals: $20,895; PACs & committees: $23,200) - November: $11,495 raised (Individuals: $5,595; PACs & committees: $5,900) 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. 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 - Rickey Hayes for Assembly and Pilar Schiavo for Assembly campaign site (why running, cost-of-living priorities) 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. [California State Assembly — Pilar Schiavo biography (career background, committee leadership)](https://a40.asmdc.org/biography) 4. [California State Assembly — Schiavo advances Landfill Safety and Transparency bills (AB 28 origin and quotes)](https://a40.asmdc.org/press-releases/20260702-assemblywoman-pilar-schiavo-advances-landfill-safety-transparency-bills) 5. [California Legislature — AB 28 bill history (status: signed into law, Chapter 356, Statutes of 2026)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB28) 6. [Pilar Schiavo for Assembly campaign site (why running, cost-of-living priorities)](https://pilar4ca.com/) 7. [Rickey Hayes for Assembly — About (biography, military and law enforcement background)](https://rickeyhayesforassembly.com/about/) 8. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 9. [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 40 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 40 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-40 (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.