# Member of the State Assembly, District 63 Compare records and positions simply between Natasha Johnson or Kevin Akin for Member of the State Assembly, District 63 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-63 - 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: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Natasha Johnson** — Assemblywoman/Business Owner · Republican · Incumbent - **Kevin Akin** — No Ballot Designation · Peace and Freedom Assemblymember Natasha Johnson took 99.3% of the June 2 vote, and the second slot went to Peace and Freedom candidate Kevin Akin with 0.7%. The district covers Lake Elsinore, Menifee and part of southwestern Riverside 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. This district's member sits in the minority caucus, where enacting legislation requires majority-party agreement. One number here stands out and needs stating plainly: the incumbent has authored 28 bills this session and had 2 signed into law — among the lowest counts of any sitting member on this ballot. Minority-caucus members face a real structural hurdle, and several of her Republican colleagues still converted five or more bills. Weigh that against a challenger with no funding and no record. ## Natasha Johnson Natasha Johnson, a Republican, represents the 63rd Assembly District, covering Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Norco and parts of Corona and Riverside. She spent more than 26 years in banking and has hands-on experience with her husband's small business (official Assembly site). She served on the Lake Elsinore City Council starting in 2012, including three terms as mayor, before winning a 2025 special election to replace Bill Essayli, who left the Assembly to head the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles (Press-Enterprise; official Assembly site). She says she is "running for re-election because Riverside County deserves a strong, practical voice in Sacramento" (Press-Enterprise). Write-in challenger Kevin Akin has said Johnson "does her corporate donors' bidding" and is "unwilling to criticize or dissent from anything the Trump administration has done"; Johnson responded that her voting record "reflects the values of this district, not the priorities of special interests" (Press-Enterprise). She promises to keep working on public safety, homelessness and the cost of living, and she supports "parental rights" and school choice (campaign site). Her authored bills this term include measures on veterans' state park access, streamlining accessory dwelling unit permits in rural areas, and simplifying trespass enforcement for property owners (official Assembly site). **Strengths:** A long record in local government and banking before Sacramento, and specific bills already turned into law on veterans and housing. **Trade-offs:** She holds a seat in the legislature's minority party, which limits how much of her agenda can pass without majority support. **Keep in mind:** A write-in candidate qualified against her by arguing she votes with corporate donors, a claim she disputes directly. ## Kevin Akin Kevin Akin, 75, is a retired steam engineer and Riverside native who worked at the county hospital and at Kaiser Steel in Fontana. He is registered with the Peace and Freedom Party and has long championed Riverside's architectural history, including the fight to save the downtown Unitarian Universalist Church building and efforts to preserve the legacy of Riverside's Chinese community (Press-Enterprise). After getting his mail-in ballot and seeing Johnson was the only listed candidate, Akin gathered the signatures needed to qualify as a write-in candidate, then won 575 write-in votes in the June primary, enough to advance to November (Press-Enterprise). That made him the first write-in candidate to reach a general-election Assembly race since 1958, according to a California State Library spokesperson (Press-Enterprise). "I have nothing ... against (Johnson). I'm sure she's a nice person. But she just votes with the corporate folks all the time," he said; Johnson responded that her record "reflects the values of this district, not the priorities of special interests" (Press-Enterprise). He says he is "actively seeking endorsements from people all over the political spectrum who are not comfortable with corporate politics" (Press-Enterprise). He has taken part in at least one anti-Trump "No Kings" protest and says Johnson is "unwilling to criticize or dissent from anything the Trump administration has done" (Press-Enterprise). **Strengths:** He became the first write-in candidate to reach a California Assembly general election since 1958, a genuinely rare feat. **Trade-offs:** No record in office, little funding, and a district where his party holds under one percent of registration. **Keep in mind:** He says he ran because no one else would challenge an unopposed incumbent, not because he expects an easy win. ## Record in office Natasha Johnson (Republican) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 28 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 2 of them signed into law. Kevin Akin 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 Johnson — AB 2110 (): Workforce Housing Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Act. Johnson — AB 2174 (): Mobilehomes and manufactured housing: registration and titling documentation. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Natasha Johnson** - Primary: $332,711 raised (Small donors: $1,008; Individuals: $58,053; PACs & committees: $141,502; Businesses & other orgs: $126,550) - November: $21,000 raised (PACs & committees: $7,000; Businesses & other orgs: $14,000) Kevin Akin has no contributions reported to Cal-Access for this race. 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. Kevin Akin 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 - Natasha Johnson for State Assembly may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide 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. [AD63 | Johnson — Biography and Legislation pages, via Internet Archive (career background and authored-bill topics; live site blocks automated fetches)](http://web.archive.org/web/20260323170603/https://ad63.asmrc.org/biography/) 4. [Natasha Johnson for State Assembly — Home page (her stated priorities and background)](https://www.natashajohnsonforassembly.com) 5. [The Press-Enterprise — This Inland Assembly hopeful wants to do something no one's done in 68 years (Akin's background, motivation, and his exchange with Johnson)](https://www.pressenterprise.com/2026/07/02/this-inland-assembly-hopeful-wants-to-do-something-no-ones-done-in-68-years/) 6. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 7. [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 63 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 63 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-63 (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.