SF Chronicle | 2026-06-02T21:42 PT
When California voters return to the polls in November, they could be choosing between two Democrats for insurance commissioner — a potential first in the history of the position. Progressive former San Francisco city supervisor Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen of Santa Monica took the lead early Tuesday night. Republican insurance agent Stacy Korsgaden was in third place. This will be just the 10th time California voters will select an insurance commissioner after passing Proposition 103 in 1988. Current commissioner Ricardo Lara, also a Democrat, is termed out at the end of the year after steering the state through its worst insurance crisis in decades. Kim, California director of the Working Families Party, led with 24% of the early vote. Her hallmark policy to create a single-payer disaster insurer for California drew skepticism from fellow candidates. Kim served on the San Francisco Board of Education before being elected to two terms on the Board of Supervisors.
Impact: The insurance commissioner oversees auto, home, and health insurance regulation in California. The race is significant given the state's ongoing insurance affordability crisis, with hundreds of thousands of Californians losing home insurance and millions seeing premiums rise dramatically.