{"id":293135,"date":"2026-04-30T13:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293135\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T13:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:26:06","slug":"one-candidate-stands-out-as-the-right-choice-in-7th-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293135\/","title":{"rendered":"One candidate stands out as the right choice in 7th District"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Josh Hoover was first elected to California\u2019s 7th Assembly District<\/a> in 2022, it was only after the Folsom Republican prevailed in a nail-biter race against longtime Democrat Ken Cooley. The Bee endorsed Hoover<\/a> in a race he won by less than one percentage point.<\/p>\n

Hoover had an easier time defeating Citrus Heights City Councilmember Porsche Middleton by more than 6% of total votes in 2024.<\/p>\n

And now in 2026, we endorse Hoover again over his third Democratic challenger, Amy Slavensky, an educator and most recently the interim deputy superintendent of the San Juan Unified School District.<\/p>\n

When Hoover took office in 2022, he was the first Republican elected to represent the district in 20 years, after a string of Democratic Assembly members that included current Sacramento City Councilmember Roger Dickinson and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty, before redistricting shifted the 7th District further away from the central city in 2020.<\/p>\n

The district now includes northeast Sacramento County. That includes the cities of Folsom, Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights, and the unincorporated communities of Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Foothill Farms, North Highlands, Orangevale and Rosemont.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of the district\u2019s bipartisan history, Hoover has stayed close to the center, avoiding the pitfalls that seem to distract his colleagues in the GOP caucus. He is a member of the California Problem Solvers Caucus, a non-party-affiliated caucus in the Legislature that was formed to put public policy before partisan politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a member of the minority party in Sacramento, I cannot get anything done if I don\u2019t work with the other side of the aisle,\u201d Hoover told the board. \u201cSo I\u2019ve really made it a priority to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoover has used his time in the state legislature to advance common-sense bills.<\/p>\n

During his first term, he authored and passed the AB 3216, also known as the Phone-Free Schools Act, which requires all California school districts to adopt policies limiting or prohibiting student smartphone use by this summer.<\/p>\n

Hoover also serves as the vice chair of the Assembly education and communications committees, and as the father of a special-needs child, is proud to serve on the Assembly Select Committee on Serving Students with Disabilities.<\/p>\n

Recently, Hoover has advanced legislation that brings accountability and transparency to the state\u2019s homelessness crisis<\/a> by auditing and tracking spending and outcomes across all programs that receive state funding. He has also proposed public safety measures that deserve consideration,<\/a> raising the minimum age for release of older parolees from 50 to 65.<\/p>\n

Upcoming legislation from Hoover includes AB 2508, which recently passed through the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee with bipartisan support. The bill proposes to reduce electricity rates for California residents by shifting certain costs off the ratepayers and onto the state\u2019s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these programs, while important and well-intentioned,\u201d Hoover said, \u201cshould not be funded on the backs of ratepayers who are currently paying the highest energy rates in the contiguous United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoover\u2019s push for more accountability on homelessness, alongside state Sen. Roger Niello and some Democrats, is a worthwhile check on Democrats who have struggled to move more people off the streets. Hoover is one of several local Republican legislators<\/a> doing good work for the region.<\/p>\n

Slavensky is a fine candidate who spoke about innovative ideas on how to bring more affordable housing to the district \u2014 she suggested building apartments on top of warehouses, like Costco. Yet she was unable to demonstrate why she should unseat Hoover.<\/p>\n

While we don\u2019t agree with Hoover on everything \u2014 his eager support for voter ID laws is an example \u2014 we believe that thoughtful opposition in the Legislature is valuable for the health of the state. It\u2019s why Hoover remains the right choice for the 7th District.<\/p>\n

BEHIND THE STORY MORE <\/a> What are editorials, and who writes them? <\/p>\n

Editorials represent the collective views of the editorial boards of McClatchy Media\u2019s California opinion teams.<\/p>\n

They do not reflect the individual opinions of board members or the views of reporters in the news sections of The Sacramento Bee and its sister publication, the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Reporters do not participate in editorial board deliberations or weigh in on board decisions.<\/p>\n

In Sacramento, the board includes Executive Editor Chris Fusco, California Opinion Editor Marcos Breton, opinion writers Robin Epley, Tom Philp, LeBron Antonio Hill, Cathie Anderson and op-ed editor Hannah Holzer.<\/p>\n

In San Luis Obispo, it includes Opinion Editor Stephanie Finucane.<\/p>\n

We base our opinions on reporting by our colleagues in the news section, and our own reporting and interviews. Our members attend public meetings, call people and follow-up on story ideas from readers just as news reporters do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.<\/p>\n

Tell us what you think <\/p>\n

You may or may not agree with our perspective. We believe disagreement is healthy and necessary for a functioning democracy. If you would like to share your own views on events important to California, you may write a letter to the editor (150 words or less) using this form<\/a>, or email an op-ed (650-750 words) to opinion@sacbee.com<\/a>. Due to a high volume of submissions, we are not able to publish everything we receive.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Josh Hoover was first elected to California\u2019s 7th Assembly District in 2022, it was only after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-293135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}