63rd Assembly Seat
RIVERSIDE (CNS) – Educator and business owner Chris Shoults will face Lake Elsinore City Councilwoman Natasha Johnson in the Aug. 26 runoff to fill the 63rd Assembly District seat vacated by Bill Essayli’s appointment as U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
Shoults, the lone Democrat in the field of four candidates on the ballot, finished first with 44.61%, or 19,776 votes, according to semifinal official results released Tuesday night by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.
Johnson, a Republican, was second with 44.21%, or 19,600 votes. Because no candidate received a majority, a runoff will be held.
Republican Vincent Romo, a high school history teacher, was third with 9.73%, 4,311 votes. Libertarian candidate Vince Consalvo, who identified himself as a businessman and educator, was fourth with 1.45%, 645 votes.
Write-in candidate Maricar Payad, a member of the American Independent Party, received one vote.
Turnout was 14.1%.
Johnson has been a Lake Elsinore City Council member since 2012. She said her entire orientation is “good government” by staying focused on what policies best “protect taxpayers.”
“As an Assembly member, I will support law enforcement to keep our neighborhoods safe, fight Sacramento taxes and red tape to lower our cost of living and protect parental rights and put students and parents first,” she said.
Johnson has worked in personal finance and business for nearly three decades.
Shoults lost to Essayli in the November 2024 general election, 57.28%- 42.72%. The father of three is originally from Wyoming, where he farmed and taught school before relocating with his family to Riverside County, where he has been an English teacher at the high school and college levels.
“My top priority will be to deliver resources and commonsense solutions,” Shoults said in election literature. “We need to lower the cost of living, make housing affordable, create good paying jobs … and protect our freedoms and our safety.”
The union activist has said previously he’s “fed up with Sacramento politicians” and would cross the aisle to end “partisan games (and) get results.”
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