Save Girls' Sports Leader Challenges Dawn Addis for State Assembly Seat

A New Challenger in the Fight for Local Representation

Shannon Kessler, a resident of Arroyo Grande and founder of the Save Girls' Sports Central Coast initiative, has announced her bid for the California State Assembly District 30 seat in 2026. Her campaign will challenge incumbent Dawn Addis, a Democrat who has held the position since 2022. The race is expected to draw significant attention due to Kessler’s strong stance on several key issues affecting the Central Coast.

Kessler’s campaign is supported by the SLO County Republican Party, which has endorsed her efforts to bring change to the district. She is running on a platform that includes four main pillars: advocating for future homeowners, supporting school choice for parents, reducing regulations on local businesses, and opposing offshore wind farms as a form of renewable energy.

“I feel that we need different people in our government, because I don’t feel that average Americans are being well represented, particularly here on the Central Coast, by our current representatives,” Kessler stated. “I wanted to go beyond local and serve at the state level because it seems to me and many other parents that there's just a relentless push of a very leftist ideology from our state Assembly.”

Experience and Community Involvement

Kessler currently serves on the SLO County Republican Central Committee and has previously been involved with the Arroyo Grande Parks and Recreation Commission. She also sits on the Pismo Coast Association of Realtors, the Local Government Relations Committee, and the Multiple Listing Service committee. Her background includes a certificate in local government and public policy from the Pepperdine School of Public Policy, and she is a licensed real estate broker and co-owner of Kessler Construction, a family-run business.

Despite not having held elected office before, Kessler believes her experience as a business owner and community member gives her a unique perspective. “Part of the problem we're in right now is because we do have lifelong bureaucrats in office who many of whom have not even owned a business, so they don't experience the effects of their own policies,” she said. “I've operated two small businesses and served in many different levels of jobs in my life, and I feel like I have a boots-on-the-ground perspective as to what it feels like to live in California.”

Advocacy for Fairness in Sports

Kessler has been deeply involved in the local community, regularly speaking at school board, city council, and SLO County Board of Supervisors meetings. Her advocacy has centered on the issue of fairness in sports, particularly regarding the participation of transgender student athletes in girls’ sports and locker rooms.

Save Girls’ Sports Central Coast, the group she founded, aims to protect girls and women from biological males in their sports, locker rooms, and private spaces. The organization has recently been active in discussions around trans student rights in schools such as Lucia Mar and Paso Robles.

Kessler is also a founder of Culture Impact, a ministry of Harvest Church. The group sent political questionnaires to SLO County candidates during the 2024 election, asking about their stances on topics like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. According to the news release, Culture Impact teaches Constitution classes and empowers citizens to vote, self-educate, run for office, and speak up at school board meetings and city council.

Key Campaign Platforms

Kessler’s campaign focuses on several critical issues, including housing, education, and energy. She positions herself as a strong proponent of private property rights and advocates for deregulating housing development. She supports Governor Gavin Newsom’s efforts to roll back the California Environmental Quality Act, arguing that this could help increase housing availability.

“We've had 8 million people come into our nation illegally, and they're pushing on the need for homes as well,” she said. “You particularly feel it here in California. Housing is too expensive, rent is too expensive, so if we could deregulate, even open up some land to developers and make it take a perhaps six months to a year to build something rather than four years of lawsuits, we could really open up housing.”

On education, Kessler supports parental choice, believing that parents should decide where their children attend school, whether it be charter, private, public, or home school. She criticizes the current system as an “indoctrination, rather than education.”

Regarding energy, Kessler is strongly opposed to offshore wind farms, calling them an “environmental boondoggle” and comparing them to the “high speed rail of the ocean.” She argues that projects like offshore wind farms and battery plants are harmful and represent “industrial greenwashing.” Kessler supports the continued operation of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and is open to exploring traditional natural gas and oil drilling as reliable energy sources.