California assemblymember candidates Dawn Addis and Shannon Kessler are likely to move forward to the general election based on current vote count published by the California Secretary of State.
Addis, the incumbent Democrat, and Kessler, a Republican, are running to represent District 30, which includes portions of San Luis Obispo County.
Addis is leading with 33,224 votes which is 54% of the votes counted in initial results from the California Secretary of State. Kessler is leading with 23,130 of the votes counted in the initial announcement, which is 37.6% of the vote.
The Secretary of State has counted 44.8% of votes as of 8:56 p.m..
In San Luis Obispo County, 45.7% of voters voted for Addis, while 47.8% voted for Kessler, according to the initial count from the County Clerk’s Office.
The general election will be held on Nov. 3, where voters will vote on the top two candidates, Addis and Kessler, to determine who will represent District 30 in the California Assembly from 2027-28.
In 2024, Addis was reelected to the California Assembly with a majority vote of 62.4%, defeating the Republican challenger. Kessler has not held a government seat before but currently serves as the Arroyo Grande Parks and Recreation commissioner.
Susannah Brown, the third candidate, has received 4,300 votes so far — about 8.3% of the votes counted in initial results. Within San Luis Obispo County, 6.5% of voters voted for Brown.
Addis’ goals
Addis shared her goals for her campaign and potential next term in an interview with Mustang News in May.
Addis says she wants to reduce housing costs to make home renting and ownership more affordable for community members and college-aged students.
“We need to continue to increase housing in the right way for our coastal communities, for students on the Central Coast,” Addis said. “I know very well how expensive college is and the amount of student debt that students are coming out with, so I have fought for full funding of the [Cal State], but have also fought to bring costs down for students in our [Cal State] system.”
Addis discussed her main priorities of protecting the environment, student privacy and sexual assault victims, especially in the wake of the 30th anniversary of Kristin Smart’s disappearance.
She says she will keep both students and community members central in her campaign and leadership.
“I also continue to work on uplifting the voice of people across the Central Coast when it comes to affordability overall,” Addis said. “Making sure that people can afford to live in California is incredibly important, and we’re still working to bring costs down when it comes to groceries, gas and utilities.”
Kessler’s goals
Kessler shared her goals for her campaign in an interview with Mustang News in May.
Kessler’s priorities in her campaign include public safety, affordability and accountability. Within affordability, Kessler, like Addis, intends to reduce the cost of living for community members.
“In my 36 years of living here on the Central Coast, I have seen that we are consistently behind the demand for housing in the supply of housing,” Kessler said. “We can’t quite keep up.”
As the founder of Save Girls’ Sports Central Coast, her campaign also focuses on protecting youth athletics and “protecting girls’ sports.”
“My generation, Gen X, will have seen the beginning and the end of girls’ sports, due to these policies which allow biological males to compete in the female sports categories based on how they are, rather than on their biological sex,” Kessler said.
She says she hopes to represent all constituents fairly, regardless of whether they voted for her.
