See full election results here →
Former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen were in a tight race for California insurance commissioner, partial returns showed Tuesday.
Kim, a progressive Democrat, was up with slightly more than 50% of the vote statewide and in San Francisco. Allen is a moderate Democrat who represents Santa Monica and other parts of Los Angeles County.
The usually sleepy race for the under-the-radar position to regulate the insurance industry drew outsized attention and money in Tuesday’s election. It’s the only competitive statewide candidate contest on California’s ballot, featuring two Democrats in heavily Democratic state.
It’s also drawn the most outside spending from political action committees that this race has ever seen: Nearly $8.2 million. The pro-Allen side received more than four times the amount supporting Kim.
Business and industry interests donated about $6.9 million to support Allen through independent PACs backed by, among others, cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen; Jessica Millan Patterson, former chairperson of the California Republican Party; and energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
Outside support for Kim — about $1.3 million — came mainly from the California Working Families Party, where Kim served as executive director from 2022 through January 2026.
Direct contributions to the candidates are, in comparison, more modest. Allen received nearly $2.9 million, and Kim roughly $1.5 million.
“We feel very good about where we stand tonight as votes are tallied,” Kim said in a statement Tuesday, noting the vast amount of money spent against her campaign. “Californians want an independent Insurance Commissioner who will fight for them, not for billionaires and corporations.”
The insurance commissioner has the power to regulate California home, auto, life, workers compensation and some health insurance.
It’s a tumultuous time to take on the position. California homeowner insurance premiums rose 84% between 2020 and March 2026. Many insurance firms have cancelled California policies or refused to write new ones.
Both candidates agreed that insurance needs to be more affordable for Californians. They disagreed on how to do that. Allen wanted to fix California’s insurance industry; Kim wanted to remake it.
Kim and Allen took the top two spots in the June primary, advancing both to the November election. Kim took roughly 27% of the vote then, and Allen 19%.
Kim, a political director for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, has proposed a single-payer natural disaster insurance program run by the state and expanding low-cost auto insurance for more families.
The office does not oversee healthcare, but Kim said she will write a plan to guarantee healthcare coverage for every child in California.
Allen said Kim’s natural-disaster plan has little chance of being approved by state lawmakers. His campaign focused on strengthening the regulatory powers of the state insurance commissioner, drawing on his experience as a legislator.
For example, Allen recently authored Senate Bill 1209, which was signed into law this September. The legislation strengthens the insurance commissioner’s ability to order insurance companies to fix violations that arise in investigations.
“He’s definitely more cautious than she is,” said Jamie Court, president of the California-based nonprofit consumer advocacy firm Consumer Watchdog. “You know what you’re getting with Ben Allen, and it’s a pretty good package.”
Kim, however, will “scare the insurance industry,” Court said. “And I don’t mind them being a little scared.”
The candidates are vying to replace Ricardo Lara, a Democrat who is termed out of office in January. He is the eighth person to hold the title since Californians approved Proposition 103 in 1988, changing the position from governor-appointed to elected.
California is one of 11 states that elects insurance commissioners, and by far the state with the largest insurance market.
Kim hasn’t held an elected position since 2019, when she finished her second term as a San Francisco supervisor. On the board, she fought for tuition-free community college, a higher minimum wage and affordable childcare. She lost her bid for San Francisco mayor in 2018.
Her backers include the California Teachers Union and California Nurses Association. She would be the first woman to serve as insurance commissioner.
Allen has endorsements from the California Democratic Party, California Environmental Voters, the Sierra Club, California Professional Firefighters and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is serving his third four-year term in the state Senate.
If this trend continues, the Insurance situation will continue to be disaster in CA for the next four years.
In addition this doesn’t help new housing construction until things clear up.
good luck to ben allen.
“The office does not oversee healthcare, but Kim said she will write a plan to guarantee healthcare coverage for every child in California. ”
If she wins, I do hope that she stays in her lane.
My MIL had to scramble to find replacement insurance last year when her insurer decided to stop doing business in CA. Thinking that it’s good for a company to be scared when you need to buy its product should disqualify you from having any level of public influence.
Jane Kim is a Boalt Hall graduate who should have won against Wiener when they ran for the legislature.
ok, but what did she accomplish in her govt tenure?
Can’t wait to have an Insurance Commissioner with no background in insurance. This will work out well
Scott Wiener is a Harvard Law School graduate that beat her because he was the better choice and more people voted for him.
The difference is in perspective. One side says, “this system is great, but it just needs a bit of tweaking”. The other side says, “this system is flawed and will continue to fail if the structure isn’t changed”. The candidate doesn’t really matter to the voters, they’re looking for a *direction*.
Kim isn’t as experienced as Allen, and I think he’s a brilliant guy, but direction counts. There were a TON of people who said medicare was going to bring the country to its knees. There were a TON of people who said ObamaCare was going to bring the country to its knees. Those people were sure they could “fix” what we have, that there were just some little problems that needed to be tweaked.
The insurance companies make a FORTUNE on CA, and they can choose to insure anyone they want, so they just pick the most profitable and then use their failure to insure as a lever with politicians. If we have our own option for insurance, it provides a bottom. A way to say, “look, if you can’t provide them insurance, we won’t be blackmailed, we’ll just have insurance that will cover them”. and YES, it will probably be inefficient and lose money and every republican on the planet will have something to say about it, however…. right now, we have zero leverage when negotiating with insurance companies. All Allen’s changes would do is to make compromises with them so they could make bigger profits while insuring a few more people – for now.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it’s going to be a gigantic disaster. Who knows. I’ve got several properties and manage about 20 others, so it’s not like I’m some little college kid with nothing to lose. I’m willing to change direction, and it looks like the majority of CA is as well.