Morro Bay City Councilmember and teacher Dawn Addis announced her campaign for State Assembly on Thursday.
In her announcement, Addis says she will, "...fight every day to protect and improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods, advance equity and justice in public policy, create jobs that pay a living wage, and protect the most vulnerable among us."
She says climate change is also one of her major platforms, along with education, health care, and housing.
"The Central Coast needs to have a voice in Sacramento," Addis said. "We need our unique community listened to and heard and we need somebody who is going to be a strong advocate. There's new opportunities opening up, new bills have been passing but the Central Coast has to get noticed up there. We have to have a leader that shares our values and is going to be able to have that voice and advocate."
In addition to her role on the city council, Addis is also known locally as a co-founder of the Women's March in San Luis Obispo.
Addis ran for the 35th District Assembly seat in 2020. It was a close race, but she lost with about 45% of the vote to Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham's 55%.
"I'm just incredibly proud of that campaign," Addis said, recalling the 2020 race. "I got 103,000 votes. I had almost 3,000 donations, maybe more. We had hundreds and hundreds of volunteers, so we built an infrastructure and a grassroots campaign that reached every corner of the district and all of that momentum still exists, so we have more infrastructure, we have a stronger network and we're just excited for 2022."
Following Addis' announcement on Thursday, the Cunningham for Assembly Campaign released the following statement:
"In the highest turnout election in history, Central Coast voters made it clear that they wanted an Assemblymember who would fight for a more affordable central coast.
Dawn Addis announced on draft district maps. That alone shows she is inexperienced and unable to effectively represent the Central Coast in the Assembly. We need thoughtful and intelligent leadership. And we don't need higher taxes, which she has a record of supporting. The Central Coast is expensive enough already."
