Damon Connolly

Background

Damon Connolly worked as a California deputy attorney general before holding elected office, and he started in politics as a school board member, The Press Democrat reported. He served seven years on the San Rafael City Council and was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 2014 and again in 2018. In 2022 he ran for the open 12th Assembly District, finishing less than a point ahead of Coastal Commissioner Sara Aminzadeh in the June primary and defeating her in November. He took office on December 5, 2022, and voters re-elected him in 2024.

In office

Connolly chairs the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee and the Select Committee on Wildfire Prevention, and serves on the Agriculture, Budget, Judiciary and Natural Resources committees. He has said 13 of his bills were signed in his first term, including a 2024 law tightening limits on pesticide spraying near schools and one requiring school districts in high fire-risk areas to plan wildfire evacuation routes. He served on the working group that shaped Proposition 4, the $10 billion climate bond.

Eighteen measures he carried in the 2025-26 session were chaptered. They include AB 1, which requires the Department of Insurance to review by 2030, and every five years after, which wildfire mitigation measures insurers' rates must reflect (signed October 9, 2025); AB 1096, on lead testing of school drinking water (October 3, 2025); AB 419, on posting immigration-enforcement information at schools (October 12, 2025); and AB 754, which caps rents at floating home marinas in Marin (October 10, 2025). Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 393, on state contracts for physicians and psychologists (October 3, 2025), and AB 1891, on a beneficial-fire program (September 27, 2026). AB 1790, which would end the water's-edge election that multinational corporations can use in calculating California tax, cleared the Revenue and Taxation Committee 4-2 and stalled in Appropriations.

Connolly voted against SB 79, the transit housing bill, on September 11, 2025, and did not vote on final passage of the budget trailer bills AB 130 and SB 131. He coauthored ACA 8, which voters approved as Proposition 50.

Chris Rogers, North Coast Assemblymember, in a statement released with Connolly's Senate announcement, called him “one of the most effective public servants I have ever worked with” (The Press Democrat, April 3, 2025). Mike McGuire, State Senator, District 2, endorsed Connolly to succeed him in the Senate seat he is leaving (The Ark, October 2026).

On the ballot

Connolly is leaving the Assembly to run for State Senate District 2, the seat Mike McGuire is termed out of. In the June 2 primary he took 73.4 percent; Republican Tief Gibbs, a Novato car restoration business co-owner and secretary of the Marin County Republican Central Committee, advanced with 16.2 percent. McGuire and Rep. Jared Huffman have endorsed him, and The Press Democrat's editorial board recommended him. Through September 19 he reported raising about $556,000 to Gibbs's $3,387. His Assembly seat is open: Eric Lucan and Jackie Elward, whom he has endorsed, are running for it.

Tief Gibbs, the opposing candidate, faulted Measure P, the Marin childcare parcel tax Connolly sponsors, saying “It’s bad, it’s just badly written” and that it sets no split of funds and no senior exemption (The Ark, October 2026). He also questioned why tree clearing along PG&E power lines has not been ensured, saying Democrats have run Sacramento for years (The Ark, October 2026).