Wednesday, June 3, 2026

California Chooses Next Watchdog Amid Wildfire Insurance Crisis

By Levi Sumagaysay, CALMATTERS

Jane Kim speaks to supporters during an election night party at El Rio in San Francisco on June 2, 2026. Photo by Beth LaBerge, KQED

Two Democrats may be duking it out on the November ballot for one of the toughest jobs in the state: insurance commissioner.

Jane Kim, the former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and state Sen. Ben Allen, who’s about to term out of the Legislature, were leading in early returns Tuesday night.

The commissioner is responsible for regulating the nation’s largest property insurance market that includes home and auto, plus health, pet, ride-hailing and life insurance, as well as workers’ compensation.

But the hot topic in the past few years as climate change has caused wildfire risk to rise has been home and fire insurance. The next commissioner will face many challenges that include trying to balance property insurance availability with affordability. Some insurance companies that had stopped renewing policies or writing new ones in the past few years are now taking advantage of new regulations that allow them to use new tools in setting their rates. This generally means premiums will rise as the Insurance Department, headed by the commissioner, is likely to keep approving increases in homeowners’ insurance premiums.

The new commissioner will also have to deal with the aftermath of last year’s Los Angeles County fires. Insurance-claim delays and denials are a key part of the slow pace of rebuilding and recovery. State Farm, California’s largest individual insurer, and the FAIR Plan, the state-mandated fire insurance provider of last resort, are both facing lawsuits from homeowners and legal action from the insurance department over their handling of claims from those fires.

Kim, the head of the California Working Families Party who was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, led Allen by 4 percentage points with 50% of votes counted, according to the Associated Press. Allen was endorsed by both U.S. senators from California, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.

Kim and Allen told CalMatters they felt good about their showing and are ready for the November contest.

“We need to transform the status quo and make the state work for us,” Kim said by phone.

“Both of us have talked about taking on the insurance industry,” Allen said, referring to Kim.

“I think I have a track record of really taking them on.”

Stacy Korsgaden, a longtime insurance agent and a Republican, was in third place after early returns. The top two vote-getters in the primary will advance to the November election.

Patrick Wolff, a Democrat and a financial analyst who mostly self-financed his campaign and has never held public office but was endorsed by some of the state’s big newspapers, was in fifth place after early returns.

The candidates CalMatters interviewed mostly agreed on the problems that need to be tackled but proposed different solutions. A few of them have called for increased financial involvement by the state: Kim wants to establish a state authority for wildfires and floods funded by a portion of policyholders’ premiums. Both Kim and Allen expressed interest in an idea by Republican candidate Merritt Farren to create a state reinsurance authority funded by a fee insurers charge policyholders. Farren seemed to be right behind Wolff in early returns.

Consumer advocacy groups and former insurance commissioners say the job is complicated and involves a “brutal balancing act” that takes into account the needs of homeowners, business owners, landlords and renters while keeping insurance companies confident that the rates they’re charging match the growing risk of wildfires in the state.

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, the Democratic congressman whose district includes much of Contra Costa and Solano counties, was the state’s first insurance commissioner and held the position two different times. He told CalMatters that the commissioner job is “complex, hard, detailed work.”

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.