Your guide to California’s Assembly 7th District primary race
In a state assembly district covering communities northwest of Sacramento including Folsom and Rancho Cordova, a longtime educator and Democrat seeks to oust Republican Josh Hoover, who has served in the Assembly since 2022, in the November general election.
In the primary race, however, both Hoover and his challenger, Amy Slavesnky, are running unopposed in their respective parties, meaning what is already shaping up to be a two-candidate race is likely to heat up after the primary.
Slavensky, a former superintendent of Amador County Unified School District, is the second Democrat to try and beat Hoover, who flipped the seat from Democrat to Republican in 2022 and has since established a reputation as a moderate who brings bills with bipartisan support. Though Slavensky has been broadly endorsed by labor unions and Democrat state politicians, including the Sacramento-area’s Democratic state lawmakers, for now she trails well behind Hoover in fund-raising.
A third candidate in the race, Sanaz Motamedi, is running as an Independent. She has not reported any campaign contributions, according to the California Secretary of State, but on her campaign website she says she is running to challenge the status quo in California politics.
Only the top two candidates, regardless of political party, will move on to the general election.
Where is the district?
Assembly DIstrict 7 is located entirely within Sacramento County. Along with the cities of Citrus Heights, Folsom and Rancho Cordova, the district captures a number of unincorporated communities including Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Rosemont, North Highlands and McClellan Park. Its voter makeup leaned Democratic until 2020, when officials shifted Folsom into the district during the Legislature’s redistricting process, which occurs every ten years.
There are still more registered Democratic voters than Republicans, however. As of December 2025, the district held 299,372 registered voters. Of those, around 37% or 110,503 were registered Democratic and 33%, or 98,808, were registered Republicans. Registered independent voters number 16,168 or 5.4%.
Who are the candidates?
Hoover, who lives in Folsom, served as chief of staff to Kevin Kiley during the now-congressman’s tenure as a state assemblyman, which ended in 2022. Hoover was also a school board member for Folsom Cordova Unified School District around that time. His online biography touts that district’s distinction as the first in Sacramento County to bring students back to the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Republican has sought to build a reputation as a legislator who can work across the political aisle, joining the Legislature’s bipartisan California Problem Solvers Caucus. He also hosts a politics podcast called Point of Order, about the Legislature and other issues.
In 2022, Hoover defeated sitting legislator Ken Cooley by just one percentage point in a race that took days to call. In 2024, he held off a challenge from Citrus Heights city council member Porsche Middleton, winning by a little more than 7 percentage points, according to the election tracking site Ballotpedia.
According to her campaign website biography, Slavensky spent forty years working in California public schools, first as a teacher and then as an administrator — both as a middle and elementary school principal and then as superintendent. After retiring from the Amador County school district in 2021, she returned to education in 2023 to serve as interim deputy superintendent for San Juan Unified School District.
Slavensky’s brother died after years of being homeless, she writes on her website, leaving her dedicated to expanding mental health treatment and housing programs. Healthcare access, women’s rights issues and “well-resourced” public schools are other leading issues she cites on her website.
Motamedi describes herself as first-generation American who has worked as a real estate agent and tax preparer. As a political independent, she writes, “she stands apart because she’s not beholden to specific interests or the status quo.” Her website does not include an issues page but she lists environmental issues, community safety and the interests of the working class as among the things motivating her run for public office.
Who is funding the race?
Though giving to Slavensky from Democratic donors and unions may pick up if she emerges from the primary, in the most recent reporting period, Hoover was carrying far more campaign cash than his rivals. From last July through the end of 2025 he raised more than $350,000, which brought his available funds up to around $540,000 going into the 2026 campaign season. Political action committees representing a range of business associations, law enforcement unions and other commercial interests are among the larger donors to his campaign, which is not unusual for a sitting legislator.
Slavensky reported just under $28,000 in available cash at the beginning of the year. The donations are largely coming from deep pocketed labor unions and public employee associations.
Motamedi’s website includes a tool for donating to her campaign, but campaign finance data indicates she has yet to report any donations. The next reporting period ends in April and will capture the first few months of this year.
This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 3:45 PM.
