Your guide to California’s 9th District Assembly primary race
Incumbent Republican State Assemblymember Heath Flora is hoping to hold onto his Assembly seat representing the Central Valley farming region that makes up District 9. Whoever is elected will be one of 80 lawmakers in the Assembly – the lower house – who work together during the two-year session to pass legislation and authorize a balanced budget.
Although Flora has a large field of challengers, his fundraising advantage could give him a significant edge, despite an October investigation by The Sacramento Bee that found he doesn’t live in his district, and local Republican Party endorsements of one of his primary opponents, Republican Jim Shoemaker. If Flora wins, he will be termed out in 2028.
Democrat newcomer Matthew Adams, a Woodbridge teacher, might have a hard time getting attention in a district that is roughly 33% Democratic and 41% Republican, with 18% of people registering with no party preference.
Where is the district?
District 9 encompasses the Central Valley farming and Delta communities that surround Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto, and includes parts of Amador, Calaveras, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
Who are the candidates?
Flora, a farmer, has served in the Assembly since he was elected in 2016, and was selected as the chamber’s Republican leader in 2025. He has passed a slate of narrow, technical bills in a mostly blue Assembly. This year, he has joined forces with Democrats on several bipartisan bills, including one aiming to lower the price of gasoline in the state.
An Oct. 2025 Sacramento Bee investigation found Flora doesn’t live at the Modesto home registered at his legal domicile and accepts “per diem” expenses despite apparently living full-time in Sacramento. The investigation also reported issues related to Flora’s child support payments and significant campaign spending on food, travel and lodging. Flora did not respond to requests for comment about the investigation.
Republican central committees in Flora’s district have instead endorsed Shoemaker, a trucker and businessman who ran against Jerry McNerney for state Senate in 2024 and for Congress in 2022. Shoemaker had been preparing to run for Congress again, against Democrat U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, but instead decided to get into the District 9 Assembly race in December.
On his campaign website, Shoemaker says he wants to increase support for law enforcement, oppose tax and fee increases that raise the costs of fundamentals, and accelerate water storage and infrastructure projects to benefit farmers.
Adams, a Democrat, is running his first campaign in California. The Lodi native graduated from Sacramento State in 2017. On his campaign website, he identifies education, health care, homelessness, and water/agricultural issues as his top priorities. Among other things, he is an advocate for better early childhood education, universal health care, a housing-first approach to homelessness, and opposing the Delta Conveyance Project.
Republican candidates Tami Nobriga, a marketing director, and Brandon Owen, a businessman, are both actively campaigning for the seat, but neither have reported raising any money to the California Secretary of State, part of The Bee’s threshold for coverage. Nobriga was Flora’s main opponent in 2024.
Democrat Michael Perez, a water treatment operator, has not filed fundraising information with the Secretary of State and also does not have an identifiable campaign website.
Who is funding the race?
Flora, who started 2026 with about $46,000 in his campaign coffers, often raises several hundred thousand dollars per year, in part due to his leadership role as the head of the Assembly Republicans. So far in 2026, according to campaign finance records, he’s raised over $142,000. Many of the donations were from business interests, such as the Virginia-based sports betting company FanDuel, which gave $7,500, and the California Real Estate Political Action Committee, which gave $5,900. Several organizations representing professional groups, like the Police Officers Research Association of California and the Sacramento Area Firefighters Union PAC also gave the maximum contribution of $5,900.
A new group called the Valley Taxpayers Defenders To Support Flora for Assembly 2026 seems to have been formed this spring, with its first recorded donation being from the deep-pocketed Keeping Californians Working, a Coalition of Insurance Agents, Energy and Health Care providers. That $49,500 donation was the only one recorded so far for the group. Keeping Californians Working received donations in 2025 from Chevron, DaVita, Edison International, and the Pharmaceutical Research And Manufacturers Of America Independent Expenditure Committee.
Flora’s competitors seem to be pulling in far smaller amounts, although the candidate’s latest campaign filings only show us a definitive financial picture up to the end of December 2025.
Shoemaker, who joined the race in December, has solicited several donations of over $1,000, including $11,800 from the Reno-based investor Robert Beadles, a far-right GOP activist and conspiracy theorist.
At the start of 2026, Adams had about $9,500 in the bank. He loaned his campaign $10,000 and has received small dollar donations from Northern California residents and a $2,000 donation from the Greater Lodi Area Democrats.
The next fundraising update for all candidates will be at the end of April.
