ROBERT RIVAS (D) (b.1/2/80) was elected to the Assembly in 2018 and sworn in as Speaker of the Assembly on June 30th, 2023. At the time of his election, he was serving his second term on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, first winning office in 2010. He began his career as a district representative for Asm. Simon Salinas, and later worked for Asm. Anna Caballero, who endorsed Rivas in the 2018 election to succeed her. Prior to his election to the Board of Supervisors, he was a senior clerk for Monterey County.  A one-time on-call Hollister firefighter, he served as a career/job training coordinator at San Benito High School and as an adjunct professor at Gavilan College. He attended Gavilan and holds a bachelor's in public policy from CSU-Sacramento and a master’s in public administration from San Jose State University. He resides in Hollister with his wife, Christen, and their young daughter.

FPPC ID# 1399487 | Detail Rpt

ROBERT RIVAS (D) (b.1/2/80) was elected to the Assembly in 2018 and sworn in as Speaker of the Assembly on June 30th, 2023. At the time of his election, he was serving his second term on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, first winning office in 2010. He began his career as a district representative for Asm. Simon Salinas, and later worked for Asm. Anna Caballero, who endorsed Rivas in the 2018 election to succeed her. Prior to his election to the Board of Supervisors, he was a senior clerk for Monterey County.  A one-time on-call Hollister firefighter, he served as a career/job training coordinator at San Benito High School and as an adjunct professor at Gavilan College. He attended Gavilan and holds a bachelor's in public policy from CSU-Sacramento and a master’s in public administration from San Jose State University. He resides in Hollister with his wife, Christen, and their young daughter.

FPPC ID# 1399487 | Detail Rpt

GREGORY GORDON SWETT (R), 66, owns and operates Swett Orchards, a 336-acre walnut farming business, and currently serves as president of the Walnut Grove school board in San Benito County. He earned his bachelor's in business from UC-Berkeley in 1975 and resides in Paicines.

FPPC ID# 1422870 | Detail Rpt

PETER LEROE-MUÑOZ is an attorney and member of the Gilroy City Council (first elected Nov. 2010). He filed to run for this seat in 2016, but dropped out and endorsed Anna Caballero shortly after she entered the race. Prior to his election to the council, he served five years as a San Benito County deputy district attorney before moving to a San Francisco-based finance firm. A Bay Area native, he received a bachelor's in Political Science from UC Berkeley and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

FPPC ID# 1375811 | Detail Rpt

TRINA COFFMAN-GOMEZ (D), 53, was elected to Watsonville's City Council in 2012, running unopposed for the vacant 6th Council District seat created when Emilio Martinez declined to seek re-election. (Her husband, Tony, had run for the same seat in 2008, finishing 3rd.) She was re-elected by 19 votes in a close 49.9%/49% contest. Prior to her election, she served on the city's planning commission for two years and as the president of Freedom Rotary. A licensed real estate broker with Integrity Lending since 1993, she holds a bachelor's in business from CSU-Monterey Bar. A life-long resident of the Pajaro Valley, she serves on the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust Board of Directors and resides in Watsonville with her husband. They have two grown children.

FPPC ID# 1399469 | Detail Rpt

ROBERT RIVAS (D) (b.1/2/80) was elected to the Assembly in 2018 and sworn in as Speaker of the Assembly on June 30th, 2023. At the time of his election, he was serving his second term on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, first winning office in 2010. He began his career as a district representative for Asm. Simon Salinas, and later worked for Asm. Anna Caballero, who endorsed Rivas in the 2018 election to succeed her. Prior to his election to the Board of Supervisors, he was a senior clerk for Monterey County.  A one-time on-call Hollister firefighter, he served as a career/job training coordinator at San Benito High School and as an adjunct professor at Gavilan College. He attended Gavilan and holds a bachelor's in public policy from CSU-Sacramento and a master’s in public administration from San Jose State University. He resides in Hollister with his wife, Christen, and their young daughter.

FPPC ID# 1399487 | Detail Rpt

BILL LIPE (D) serves on the Board of the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, on the Monterey County Farm Bureau, and was appointed to the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County in 2017. Prior to its acquisition by Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings, Lipe was a partner and CFO for NH3 Service Company, which specialized in agricultural inputs for fresh fruits and vegetables. He is currently an Operations Lead for the company. The author of a 2015 op-ed defending energy production in California, he resides in Salinas.

FPPC ID# 1402106 | Detail Rpt

NEIL KITCHENS (R) is the CEO of TNK Properties and the principal of the NGK Group. He previously ran in 2018 for AD30, reporting no campaign finance activity, and received 31.8% in the November election. A Republican activist involved in the Latinos for Trump Coalition and CD20 Republican Casey Lucius' unsuccessful 2016 campaign, he operates a real estate investment company with residential and commercial interests. Born in Mount Ida, Arkansas, he graduated from Redan High School in Stone Mountain Georgia. He holds an associate's in Criminal Justice from Hartnell College and a JD from Monterey College of Law. He resides in Prunedale.

FPPC ID# 1396333 | Detail Rpt

ANNA CABALLERO previously served two terms in the Assembly from 2006 until 2010. In 2010, Caballero gave up her Assembly seat to run for State Senate, but ultimately lost to Anthony Cannella (see SD12). After her defeat, she sought a job with Governor Brown's administration and was appointed secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency in 2011 until she stepped down in November 2015. Caballero moved to the Salinas Valley in 1979 and worked as a lawyer representing farm workers at California Rural Legal Assistance for three years before she and two of her colleagues formed the law firm of Caballero, Matcham & McCarthy. In 1986, she was appointed to the Salinas Planning Commission and served there for five years before being elected to the Salinas City Council in 1991. In 1998, she was elected Mayor of Salinas, and served in that capacity until her election to the Assembly. She holds a bachelor's in Sociology from UC-San Diego and a JD from UCLA. Her husband, Juan Uranga, is the director for Community Advocacy in Salinas. They have three grown children.  

FPPC ID# 1282323 | Detail Rpt

KARINA CERVANTEZ ALEJO (D) (b. 3/8/1980), the daughter of field workers, is the wife of the incumbent, Luis Alejo, and a first term member of the Watsonville City Council. She served on the city Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission before being elected to the council. Born in Tulare County, she received her bachelor's and master's in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. She is currently completing her PhD in Psychology from UCSC. She teaches at Cabrillo College. 

FPPC ID# 1375810 | Detail Rpt