Arroyo Grande resident Shannon Kessler is challenging Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) for the California State Assembly’s 30th District seat in 2026.
The San Luis Obispo County Republican Party-backed Kessler propelled herself into the public eye earlier this year for criticizing the inclusion of transgender student athletes in gendered sports categories and locker rooms.
That issue is part of her campaign’s priorities in her bid to represent parts of Santa Cruz, Monterey, and SLO counties.
“Despite our efforts, only two of our Lucia Mar Unified School District trustees have acted in a way that reflects our desire to protect girls’ right to privacy,” Kessler told New Times. “This lack of responsiveness motivated me to run for office—partly to advocate for parental rights and to ensure that locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports are reserved for biological females only.”
A group of parents flooded Lucia Mar’s board meetings in April and May after Kessler, as ministry director of Harvest Church, circulated a flyer mentioning two unnamed transgender students. She alleged that one of them—a trans female athlete—used the girls locker room and caused “psychological trauma” to other girls.
Kessler led a community-proposed resolution called “Supporting Title IX and Fairness in Girls’ Interscholastic Sports,” but it was never agendized after five of the seven board members rejected the idea.
Kessler’s push to “protect girls’ sports” is part of a larger conservative movement aimed at local and state school district policies aligning with the Title IX regulations of the Trump administration.
While the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter in June to school districts in the state asking them to not implement the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) bylaw that allows student sports participation based on their gender identity, California Attorney General Rob Banta sued the department saying it has “no right to make such a demand.”
“Too often, we are met with responses from officials such as, ‘We have to follow state law,’ or, ‘We have to do what CIF says,’” Kessler, the founder of Save Girls’ Sports Central Coast, said via email. “If that’s the case, then perhaps it’s time to change some of these harmful laws—especially those negatively impacting our quality of life.”
One such potential law, Kessler said, is AB 495 or the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025 that sits in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Authored by Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez (D-San Fernando), the bill aims to provide compassionate solutions for immigrant families facing sudden separations because of detention or deportation.
Kessler claimed that the bill redefines guardianship and would allow “anyone” to take custody of a child from their parents.
The bill would broaden the definition of a non-relative extended family member, but it only allows parents to designate someone to take care of their kids temporarily. The parents would still maintain parental rights.
Now, the one-time Ocean View Elementary School PTA president and candidate for Arroyo Grande City Council is also fighting for “school choice.”
School choice, Kessler said, means parents would have the right to decide whether their children should be educated through homeschooling, private, public, or charter schools.
On Aug. 5, Kessler and Chino Valley Unified School Board President Sonja Shaw—who’s running for California state superintendent—endorsed each other on Facebook as parental rights advocates “fighting the good fight.”
Shaw drew controversy in March during a school district meeting when she ripped in half a cease-and-desist letter she’d received from the mother of a transgender female athlete in the school district. The letter called out Shaw for making comments from her Instagram account about trans girls participating in girls’ sports.
Along with advocating for policies that support homeownership for young families and longtime residents, Kessler’s also targeting the state’s support of electric vehicles. According to her, electric engines can’t handle heavy loads as efficiently as gas and diesel engines used by construction businesses.
“Ever-increasing environmental regulations on the trucking industry have forced businesses to abandon fully functional fleets,” she said. “Companies are often required to replace vehicles that still have years of useful life left, simply to comply with new restrictions.”
Kessler added that she will campaign against industrial “greenwashing,” pointing to how the Caballero battery storage facility in Nipomo was built while many residents complained they weren’t notified properly about it.
“Because the project is classified as ‘green energy,’ it was approved at the state level, bypassing local input,” she said. “As a state assemblywoman, I would not rubber-stamp projects simply because they carry a ‘green’ label. Every form of energy production should be evaluated on its actual merits—including nuclear power, which remains one of the most efficient and cleanest options available.”
Caballero was approved in 2023 by the SLO County Planning Commission and completed in February 2025.
Incumbent Addis, who fought for legislation to improve safety standards and restore local oversight for energy storage facilities, confirmed she’s running for reelection.
“Representative democracy works because anyone can run for office,” she said. “Every voter can make a free choice, and I am deeply grateful for the confidence voters have placed in me to represent them.” Δ
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that Shannon Kessler didn’t explicitly name two transgender students in the flyer she circulated.
This article appears in Aug 14-24, 2025.
Neither Shannon nor anyone else at Culture Impact identified any student. The high school student identified himself at the April 15 board meeting. You have the flyer. You should correct that.
In this article, I am incorrectly accused of identifying the trans identifying students at Arroyo Grande High School. I have never published or named in my speeches the male students invading the girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports categories at Arroyo Grande High School.
Shannon Kessler, Candidate for CA Assembly District 30.
Thank you for this well researched and reported piece. The writer took care to present an unbiased analysis of Kessler by clearly presenting her ideas and actions. She is a slightly more sane political candidate than Gaea Powell, but a non-starter representing our assembly district. I don’t understand why the local Republican Party keeps spewing out these wildly unqualified candidates and their far-right conservative ideologies.
Hopefully, someone will keep a close watch on campaign fundraising and spending . . .
Kessler – you say, I have never published or named in my speeches the male students invading the girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports categories at Arroyo Grande High School. Possibly it is true that youve never specifically published or named them in your speeches, however, I bring your attention back to a recent New Times article (May 2025 article link below) that directly quotes the transgender student saying this at the school board meeting, Worse still, the danger does not only come from other students. Individuals like Shannon Kessler, [former Arroyo Grande mayoral candidate] Gaea Powell, and [Lucia Mar board member] Mike Fuller are using their platforms to spread harmful misinformation and hateful rhetoric. They’re even involving members of the track team, handing them scripts designed to dehumanize and intimidate queer youth. Possibly you do not feel responsible for the absolute humiliation and harassment of this student or other transgender students because you specifically never published or named them in your speeches but you were most definitely complicit in it. And your continued bashing of them by referring to them as the male students invading the girls locker rooms, bathrooms shows you are very much in lockstep with the narrow-minded bigotry invading this country.
https://www.newtimesslo.com/news/rally-at-…
What I don’t understand is that Kessler, Powell, Fuller et al are ostensibly Christians affiliated with local churches, but their hatred toward transgender youth and general homophobia is not Christian behavior. Why aren’t they advocating for the people of Gaza, something Jesus would actually be doing?