# Member of the State Assembly, District 9 Compare records and positions simply between Matthew Adams or Heath Flora for Member of the State Assembly, District 9 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-9 - 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 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Matthew Adams** — Teacher · Democratic - **Heath Flora** — Father/Farmer/Assemblyman · Republican · Incumbent Assemblymember Heath Flora led the June 2 primary with just 30.6% and Democrat Matthew Adams took 25.9% — a 4.7-point gap, and one of the weakest primary showings by any sitting member on this ballot. The district covers part of San Joaquin and Stanislaus 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. Which party wins here determines whether this district's representative works inside the majority or the minority. An incumbent taking under a third of the vote in a crowded primary is the headline fact here, and it cuts against the money: he raised roughly sixty-four times what his nearest challenger did. Weigh whether June's result reflects a divided field or genuine softness in a seat he has held for several terms. ## Heath Flora Heath Flora, a farmer from Ripon, is the Republican Assemblymember for District 9 and served as Assembly Republican leader for part of this session. His campaign site says he has "fought for better management of our forests," "stood up for small businesses," and worked "to educate other Assembly Members on the challenges farmers face" (campaign site). He sits in the Assembly's Republican minority, where bills need majority support to advance. On July 2, 2026, Flora was one of the few Assembly Republicans to vote for SB 762, which let ten cities and two counties raise local sales taxes above the state's usual 2 percent cap (California Legislature). A month later, Assembly Republicans removed him as their leader, citing that vote along with two Fair Political Practices Commission inquiries into his campaign spending, including more than 11,500 dollars spent at a Sacramento bar since 2025 (Lodi News-Sentinel). Flora's office attributed the reporting issues to staff delays and said it was working with the FPPC to correct them (Lodi News-Sentinel). Flora promises to keep "fighting for better management of our forests," backing small businesses and representing Central Valley agriculture (campaign site). He calls it "an honor to represent our communities in the State Assembly" (campaign site). **Strengths:** A voting record and committee experience across several terms, and enough standing in his own caucus to lead it for part of this year. **Trade-offs:** His own party removed him as leader after his vote on a tax bill and two open ethics inquiries into his campaign spending. **Keep in mind:** The tax vote let local governments exceed the state's sales tax cap, and it is part of why his own caucus removed him. The ethics questions are unresolved, and his office says the reporting problems are being corrected. ## Matthew Adams Matthew Adams, a teacher, is the Democratic candidate in California's 9th Assembly District and has not previously held elected office. At a candidate forum in Riverbank in September 2026, Adams said he is "willing and ready to serve with a focus on putting community, not corporate interests, first and foremost" (Oakdale Leader). Coverage of his campaign is otherwise thin: he has no record in any elected office for voters to weigh. Adams' stated priority, per his comments at that forum, is representing the community's interests over corporate ones. A more detailed platform could not be located in any source we fetched. **Strengths:** A first-time candidate drawing attention as an outsider taking on a sitting Assemblymember, with a clear message about serving the community. **Trade-offs:** No record in any office to be judged on, and coverage of his campaign is thin beyond that one message. **Keep in mind:** What we can document is a forum appearance and a stated focus on community over corporate interests, not a record in office. That is a narrower basis for judgment than an incumbent's record. ## Record in office Matthew Adams has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Heath Flora (Republican) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 32 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 5 of them signed into law. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Flora — AB 509 (2025): Alcoholic beverages: minors. Flora — AB 1392 (2025): Elections: voter registration information: elected officials and candidates. Flora — AB 876 (2025): Nurse anesthetists: scope of practice. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Matthew Adams** - Primary: $17,658 raised (Small donors: $738; Individuals: $4,620; PACs & committees: $2,000; Businesses & other orgs: $300; Self-funding: $10,000) - November: $45 raised (Individuals: $45) - **Heath Flora** - Primary: $1,133,160 raised (Individuals: $16,100; PACs & committees: $486,402; Businesses & other orgs: $623,400) - November: $49,800 raised (PACs & committees: $24,500; Businesses & other orgs: $25,300) 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 - Heath Flora 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. [California Legislative Information — SB 762 Assembly Floor vote record (used for Heath Flora's vote)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB762) 4. [Lodi News-Sentinel via Yahoo News — Flora removed as leader of Assembly Republican Caucus (used for Flora's removal and ethics inquiries)](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/flora-removed-leader-assembly-republican-035900633.html) 5. [Heath Flora for Assembly — campaign website (used for Flora's biography and priorities)](https://www.heathflora.com/) 6. [Oakdale Leader — Riverbank forum welcomes candidates from multiple races (used for Matthew Adams's forum quote)](https://www.oakdaleleader.com/news/riverbank-forum-welcomes-candidates-from-multiple-races/) 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 9 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 9 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-9 (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.