Spanning most of San Luis Obispo County and moving up the coastline to include Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, the 30th Assembly District will usher in either Democrat Dawn Addis or Republican Vicki Nohrden come Nov. 8.
In campaign documents, Nohrden identifies as a nonprofit director, educator, and family court advocate. In 2020, she unsuccessfully ran for the 17th District state Senate seat vacated by Sen. Bill Monning. But Nohrden—an ordained minister and founder of a religious group called Wind and Fire Ministries—had an eye on politics long before that.
In 2008, she wrote a book called The Shield of Minerva, a scathing critique of then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Californian policies approving same-sex marriage and reproductive rights.
“My purpose for writing this book is twofold,” Nohrden wrote in the book. “One is to expose the spiritual stronghold of Minerva seated over the state of California and the agenda hidden behind the shield she bears. The other is to encourage, exhort, equip, and trumpet the assembling of those who are called throughout California and our nation in this strategic season to arise and stand up and shine with God’s glory.”
Nohrden’s book also lambastes cutbacks in school and library funding, a theme that resurfaced in her present campaign. While her candidate statement documents her criticism of public schools for struggling to provide quality education, Nohrden’s book outlined another fear.
“The budget cutbacks don’t seem to have stopped liberal agendas from moving forward within the education gate with their mandatory homosexual agenda beginning at the elementary school level,” Nohrden wrote. “If the homosexual agenda takes root in California, there goes the nation.”
Containing six chapters, Nohrden’s fictional story is interspersed with biblical passages and references and attempts to link those to the state’s political landscape. For example, she hints at heat waves, lightning strikes, and wildfires being the result of God’s punishment for sinning and “choosing our own way.” Other times, she refers to herself as a prophet who receives visions from God.
Nohrden told New Times that she wouldn’t comment on her book until after the election was over.
“I absolutely believe in a separation of church and state. I’m running on a platform of bringing common sense, bipartisanship, and infrastructure investment for the Central Coast,” she said via email. “I stand for the freedom of speech, religion, and the right to assembly protected in the Constitution for all Californians.”
In Roman mythology, Minerva (or Athena in Greek lore) is the goddess of wisdom, law, and justice, among a slew of other institutions. She rests on the state seal of California, accompanied by a grizzly bear and the state motto “Eureka.” Nohrden’s book names her as the representation of outlooks she disagrees with and ends with a call to break Minerva’s shield of “false rulership.”
“California needs a holy blood washed birth, not one identified with the goddess Minerva’s arrival having sprung forth from the head of Zeus!” the book states.
Nohrden’s campaign website declares that she’s running against “a dysfunctional Legislature in Sacramento, against agenda-drive policies.” It also mentions that she worked as a youth director at the Presbyterian Church in Carmel to impact children on school campuses. Her campaign statement questioned the record-high $97 billion surplus budget and its allocation, and Nohrden’s campaign newsletter called Addis her “out-of-touch progressive opponent” who has “outside special interests spending big money on her.”
“That’s why I’m running, that’s what I support, anything else seems a distraction to divide and incite instead of reasoning together and creating solutions for issues from homelessness to housing that are getting worse,” Nohrden told New Times.
Campaign finance documents from Jan. 1 to Oct. 22 show that Nohrden received roughly $96,000 in contributions. Addis raked in a little more than $420,000 in donations from July 1 to Oct. 22.
Voter registration data from Political Data Inc. predicts the advantage for Addis, with Democrats making up 45.7 percent and Republicans almost 27 percent of the registered voters in the recently redrawn district. In comparison, the district’s previous iteration—the 35th District—was historically Republican-leaning and represented by Republican Jordan Cunningham.
Addis told New Times that she hadn’t read Nohrden’s book.
“My goal is to be able to lead as a representative of each person who lives here regardless of their background,” she said.
The Morro Bay City Council member and teacher believes she will win comfortably. If she wins the state Assembly seat, she said her top priorities would be climate, housing, and water issues.
“I fit this district incredibly well because I’m a council member in a coastal city and the district has four hours of coastline,” she said. “Also, I’ve lived in San Luis County, raised our kids here, been a teacher here, worked in the public schools for over 20 years. So, I very much understand the needs of working people across San Luis County.” Δ
Correction: This story was changed to correct a misstatement about the percentage of registered Republican voters in the 30th Assembly District.
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 3-13, 2022.
Isn’t it interesting how the evangelical’s god of hate sends droughts, fires and other natural disasters on California to punish the state for its liberalism but the regions hit hardest by the fires are solidly republican?
Whack a Doodle Dandy!!! YIKES!!!!