# Member of the State Assembly, District 69

Compare records and positions simply between Josh Lowenthal or Carolyn J. Essex for Member of the State Assembly, District 69 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-69
- 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

- **Josh Lowenthal** — Business Owner/Assemblymember · Democratic · Incumbent
- **Carolyn J. Essex** — Legislative Policy Analyst · Democratic

Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal took 68.6% of the June 2 vote and fellow Democrat Carolyn J. Essex took 28.5%, so November is a contest between two members of the same party. The district covers Long Beach and part of the South Bay.

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.

With two Democrats on the ballot, party is not the axis. The incumbent authored 30 bills and had 8 signed into law, a middling conversion rate, and his challenger has reported no funding at all. Weigh the record on its own terms, and note how little is documented about the alternative.

## Josh Lowenthal

Josh Lowenthal is the Democratic Assemblymember for this district, first elected in 2022; before that he was "a successful entrepreneur and business owner with a long, successful track record in tech and telecom startups," and he also worked as a local teacher (Assembly biography; campaign site). This term he sits on the Business and Professions, Communications and Conveyance, Education, and Privacy and Consumer Protection committees, and serves as Assistant Majority Whip (Assembly committee page).

He grew up in Long Beach and says he has "committed himself to improve the community we live in" (Assembly biography). This term he authored Assembly Bill 1709, which bars social media platforms from offering features "defined as psychologically exploitative and designed to maximize engagement in ways that foreseeably lead to compulsive use" among users under 16, including infinite scrolling and algorithmic autoplay; it passed both houses without a single no vote, and Governor Newsom signed it (MyNewsLA). The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed the bill as a "massive privacy and free speech nightmare" over its age-verification requirements; Newsom said the law "is about the features themselves" and "the engineering," not a ban on social media (MyNewsLA).

Lowenthal calls the new law a "bold first step," saying, "we're laying the groundwork for what comes next: stronger protections, smarter enforcement, more accountability for the platforms that have treated our children's attention as a product to be mined" (MyNewsLA). His campaign also lists job creation, public schools and homelessness among his ongoing priorities (campaign site).

**Strengths:** A specific, unanimous legislative win this term: his law barring addictive social media features for kids under 16 passed without a single no vote and was signed by the governor.

**Trade-offs:** A digital rights group says the law's age-verification requirements could burden young people's access to and privacy on the platforms it regulates.

**Keep in mind:** He drew a same-party challenger rather than a Republican, which usually points to a disagreement inside the district's own coalition rather than a partisan one.

## Carolyn J. Essex

No campaign website or news coverage of Carolyn J. Essex's background could be located. Essex's ballot designation lists their current job title as Legislative Policy Analyst.

No documented record of their conduct in office could be located, since they have not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress. No statement from Essex about why they are challenging a sitting member of their own party could be located.

No stated priorities or promises from Essex could be located.

**Strengths:** No documented strengths beyond their showing in the June primary could be located.

**Trade-offs:** No record in office to judge, and no campaign material sets out their positions.

**Keep in mind:** Almost nothing beyond their ballot designation is documented about why Essex is challenging their own party's incumbent.

## Record in office

Josh Lowenthal (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 30 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 8 of them signed into law.

Carolyn J. Essex 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

Lowenthal — AB 2 (2026): Injuries to children: civil penalties.

Lowenthal — AB 1709 (2026): Covered platforms: age restriction: e-Safety Advisory Commission.

Lowenthal — AB 812 (2025): Recall and resentencing: incarcerated firefighters.

Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record.

## Financial info

- **Josh Lowenthal**
  - Primary: $709,942 raised (Small donors: $374; Individuals: $145,345; PACs & committees: $362,920; Businesses & other orgs: $195,300)
  - November: $25,700 raised (Individuals: $17,700; PACs & committees: $1,500; Businesses & other orgs: $6,500)

Carolyn J. Essex 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.

Carolyn J. Essex 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

- Josh Lowenthal for 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. [Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal — official Assembly biography and committee assignments](https://a69.asmdc.org/biography)
4. [Josh Lowenthal for Assembly — campaign site (biography, priorities)](https://joshlowenthal.com)
5. [MyNewsLA — Long Beach Lawmaker's Bill Targeting 'Addictive' Social Media Features Signed](https://mynewsla.com/government/2026/09/10/long-beach-lawmakers-bill-targeting-addictive-social-media-features-signed/)
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 69 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 69 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-69 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026).

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