LOS ANGELES — Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), whose Sacramento-area district was reshaped by California’s voter-approved redistricting overhaul last year, and Richard Pan, known nationally for spearheading the state’s push to eliminate religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements, will square off against each other this November in California’s 6th Congressional District.
Kiley waited several days to learn who his opponent would be, but with 92% of the vote now counted, the Associated Press declared that Pan will advance to the runoff later this year. He edged out Republican Michael Stansfield, narrowly avoiding a rare California race that would have boxed out a Democrat. As of Wednesday morning, Kiley has 45,006 votes, good for a share of 24.5%; Pan has 42,587, or 23.2%; while Stansfield has 36,961, or 20.1%.
Under California’s jungle primary system, the top two finishers advance to the Nov. 3 runoff if no candidate wins a majority outright.
Kiley, a two-term congressman who represents the 3rd Congressional District, announced in March that he would run as an independent candidate in the 6th District, where he resides, rather than as a Republican in the redrawn 3rd. The 6th District seat lumps conservative suburbs of Sacramento with liberal ones closer to California’s capital city.
Kiley said he had become “frustrated, sometimes disgusted, by the hyperpartisanship in Congress” and that he answers to constituents, “not party leaders.”
“The district has voted for candidates of all political stripes, and I think that that reflects the way that I’ve always approached my role as a representative,” Kiley told the Washington Examiner before the primary. “I’ve always put my district first and answered to my constituents, not party leaders in Sacramento or Washington, D.C., and I’ve been fortunate to get a significant number of votes from Democrats, Republicans, and independents in prior elections. I think we’re very well-positioned to advance in the primary, win the general election, and deliver effective independent leadership for this newly drawn district.”
On Capitol Hill, Kiley has emerged as one of the loudest critics of California’s mid-decade congressional redistricting, accusing Democrats of redrawing the map to weaken GOP incumbents. He has also voiced frustration with House leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), for failing to advance legislation to curb partisan redistricting.
Pan, a pediatrician and former state lawmaker, is hoping to hold Kiley accountable for supporting Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“We see a federal government that seems to be intentionally attacking health care, whether it’s taking away people’s health insurance, undermining public health to allow disease to spread, or cutting research for things like cancer treatments,” Pan told CalMatters in an interview.
KEVIN KILEY’S TWO-FRONT FIGHT: BATTLING CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING WHILE DEFENDING HIS OWN SEAT
Pan was born in New York and raised in Pittsburgh by parents who emigrated from Taiwan. He graduated with a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University in 1998 and moved to the Sacramento area to accept a faculty position at the University of California, Davis.
He is known for writing some of California’s toughest vaccine mandates and said it was Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recommendation to loosen those mandates that pushed him to jump into the congressional race.