Competition is brewing within the Democratic Party in the race to represent the 30th Assembly District.
On June 2, party-line blue voters in the district covering parts of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and most of SLO County have a choice between incumbent Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay), a former special education teacher and Morro Bay City Council member, and Susannah Brown, a data strategy consultant.
The two Democrats face off against Republican challenger Shannon Kessler in the primary election, and the top two vote-getters will be in a runoff in the general.
Brown, a San Luis Obispo mother who was vocal about retaining San Luis Coastal Unified District’s transitional kindergarten (TK) program when it faced being cut as a budget-balancing measure, told New Times that Addis’ response to parental concern was a driving force in her decision to run for office.
“She said, ‘There’s no funding, but because there’s a lot of advocacy, I’ll still put it up there,’ almost like a Hail Mary. I remember that feeling, like, this is not who I voted for,” Brown said. “This is not the person that I want fighting for our children and our school districts. She was very pessimistic about the outcome.”
In December 2025, after watching a seven-hour-long school board meeting, 37-year-old Brown felt the 30th Assembly District needed someone who’d be “relentless” about advocating to solve its problems.
‘I am someone that wants to prioritize local implementation over broad statewide frameworks. … There’s a lot of bills that get put up in [Sacramento]. … Often, they are based in rhetoric and not really in reality, and the impact of the time and energy that go into writing these bills is not really seen.’
—Susannah Brown, 30th Assembly District candidate
Her platform is built on championing data-driven public policy, stabilizing school funding, modernizing the electrical grid and preventing cost spikes, improving regional water systems, supporting Diablo Canyon Power Plant operations with transparency and accountability, and alleviating housing instability.
Finding a better housing situation has been on Brown’s mind for years. Orphaned at 4, the one-time chair of the South County Chamber of Commerce told New Times she spent her early years in an environment where drug abuse and financial hardship were rampant.
“[Navigating homelessness] is actually one of my most valued parts of my identity,” Brown said. “I bring lived experience to this position and all positions that I do, whether it’s volunteer work or school things or community outreach or politics.”
According to her website, she learned that housing stability requires accessible support systems and adults who follow through.
Brown said she was lucky that SLO County “wrapped its arms” around her while she was growing up, with help coming from school counselors, teachers, and grocery workers, among others.
She’s especially grateful for the local chapter of the federal Head Start program—President Lyndon B. Johnson’s free early childhood program for low-income families inspired by John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign.
“It changed my entire trajectory,” Brown said. “I was able to have a bus pick me up in the morning even if there were no adults present. … I knew once I was at Head Start, I would at least have a little bit of safety for a couple of hours and a meal, a snack, a time to be a kid. I never take that for granted, and I hope that program never ceases.”
With the Trump administration asking Congress to eliminate funding for Head Start and some chapters in California on the verge of closing, Brown wants to prioritize the well-being of students, teachers, and school support staff.
“I think the first thing we’ve got to do is prioritize long-term sustainable energy in California and in our region. Diablo’s carbon-free baseload power is essential,” said Brown, whose husband works in the plant’s nuclear operations division. “I don’t think doing these piecemeal one-year, two-year, five-year things is sustainable. It needs to be a long-term plan so that the entire system that operates can plan, businesses can upscale, schools can uplift students, technical students can train, Cal Poly and other schools can get engineers prepped for [the] next era of energy workers.”
Brown, who endorsed 4th District supervisorial candidate and Oceano business owner Adam Verdin, labeled herself as a “business-minded moderate Democrat” compared to the more left-leaning incumbent Addis.
“I’m very influenced by looking around at what our business community is doing, whether it’s succeeding or failing,” Brown said. “How can we make a difference so that we can have people that can afford to live here and send our kids here to school?”
The biggest contrast between herself and Addis, Brown said, is in execution and governance styles. She added that she doesn’t want to spread herself thin composing bills on a plethora of issues; she’d rather spend more time focusing on a smaller number of topics—housing, energy, schools, and infrastructure.
“I am someone that wants to prioritize local implementation over broad statewide frameworks,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of bills that get put up in [Sacramento]. I don’t think people understand how this process works. … Often, they are based in rhetoric and not really in reality, and the impact of the time and energy that go into writing these bills is not really seen.”
Addis told New Times that she developed and introduced Assembly Bill 1391 to secure funding for the threatened TK program. Working on the bill helped build a coalition of bipartisan support comprising families across California who advocated for more robust financial support.
“I fought for the bill, but it did not get out of committee because of concerns about the state budget. I am continuing to fight for more funding for our schools because, as a classroom teacher and a working mom, I believe that a great education is the most important gift we can give our children,” she said. “My door is always open to Central Coast residents who have ideas, questions, concerns, or a desire to learn more about the legislative process.”
Addis added that she’s currently working to secure the Central Coast communities’ “fair share” of state funding, reduce the cost of living, support public schools, improve health care access, protect the coast and climate, and lower barriers to home ownership.
“I’ve championed important legislation to make utilities more affordable, provide housing for homeless students, improve bilingual education, and help survivors of childhood sexual assault pursue justice,” she said. “I also successfully defeated insurance premium increases for low-income seniors and rejected cuts to our California State University and University of California campuses.
“I am proud of the work I’ve accomplished for the Central Coast, and there is a great deal more to do.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
Clarification, March 27, 2026 11:43 am: Susannah Brown reached out to New Times after this story's publication to clarify her endorsement of 4th District supervisorial candidate Adam Verdin. This story has been updated to reflect the change.
This article appears in March 26 – April 2, 2026.