Pan criticizes Kiley as California congressional race heats up

By Chris Woodward
The Center Square

The race for California’s Congressional District 6 is a “priority race” for Democrats. That is according to Dr. Richard Pan, the Democrat who appears headed to the Nov. 3 general election against incumbent Kevin Kiley, I-Rocklin.

The area was known as District 3 until it was redrawn to favor Democrats under Proposition 50.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday outside the California Democratic Party office in Sacramento, Pan said that, as a doctor, he has devoted his life to protecting the life and safety of the region’s families. Now, Pan said, he is running for Congress to improve lives and make government work for people.

“Kevin Kiley chose a different path,” said Pan, who is also an educator, small business owner and former state senator for the Sacramento region. “As a career politician, Kiley first ran for Congress in 2022, taking extreme positions on immigration, voting rights, public health and earned Trump’s endorsement as his MAGA champion.”

Pan then said U.S. Rep. Kiley, who was a Republican until earlier this year, voted with President Donald Trump 90% of the time, including backing Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Kiley is now an independent who caucuses with Republicans.

“Now his families here in the 6th District struggle with the increasing cost of food, gas above $6 a gallon, and draconian cuts to their healthcare,” said Pan. “These are the results of Kevin Kiley’s unquestioning support of Donald Trump’s extremist Project 2025 agenda.”

Pan added that “Kevin Kiley is hoping voters forget what he’s done to them to pursue his own personal ambitions and Trump’s Republican Party,” but Pan is not buying that Kiley is going to be an independent voice.

“The Republican leadership continued to help support and finance his campaign, and the chair of the California Republican Party recently called Kevin Kiley a Republican at his core,” said Pan. “He will say whatever he needs to keep himself in office.”

With 24 days remaining in the vote count, Kiley is leading the race with 46,942 votes or 24.3% of the vote.

Pan has 44,839 or 23.2%.

There are five other candidates in the race. Four of them are Democrats who collectively have 32.5% of the vote as of Tuesday. Republican candidate Michael Stansfield has 20.1%. The Center Square’s figures come from the California Secretary of State’s website.

On June 10, the District 6 race was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program.

“CA-06 is one of the top chances to flip a House seat and take back the majority,” said Pan in an X post on June 10. “I’m running to defeat Kevin Kiley and deliver for the families of this district.”

Republicans currently have a razor-thin majority in the House, and Democrats could take control by flipping a few seats in the November midterm election.

The Center Square asked Kiley for a comment and did not hear back by publication time.

In May, Kiley told The Center Square that he too was running to deliver for families in this district.

Like other politicians and voters, Kiley wants something done about the affordability crisis.

“We lead the nation in highest gas prices, highest electricity prices, with water and housing and groceries, and much of that is because of overreaching state policies, which are not well adapted to what will make things affordable in our state,” Kiley told The Center Square in May.

The average in California for a gallon of regular gas was $5.71 on Tuesday. That’s according to AAA, which has the national average at $4.04. While California has the highest price in the nation, the rates show a decrease from previous weeks during the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. Trump recently announced the U.S. and Iran would sign a peace deal Friday to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ships.