Former CA Senator Richard Pan Announces Bid for District 3 Seat

DISTRICT 3 — Last week, former California Senator Dr. Richard Pan (D) announced he would be running for Congress in District 3 in a bid to unseat incumbent Kevin Kiley (R). The seat in the district is likely to become more competitive for Democrats if voters pass Proposition 50 in November. The redrawn District 3 covers a much smaller area encompassing Nevada County, Placer County, and parts of El Dorado and Sacramento Counties. The district would no longer include Sierra, Plumas, or Yuba Counties.

In a video launching his campaign, Pan introduces himself as a pediatrician and educator. He points to a record of expanding healthcare, particularly among children, having co-founded the non-profit Healthy Kids, Healthy Future, which he says has secured healthcare coverage for over 65,000 children. Pan says he is running for Congress to prevent a potential loss of federal health insurance programs, and to address affordability of housing and food.

In an interview with KCRA 3 in Sacramento, Pan stated that his goal in the U.S. House would be to “hold the Trump administration and RFK Jr. accountable.” He also emphasized his support for Proposition 50, although he clarified he would run for the District 3 seat whether or not the proposition ultimately passes. Pan says that incumbent Kiley is “a reliable vote for the president’s agenda,” and that he is not standing up to the administration for his constituents.

Pan served as a California Senator for the 6th district in the Sacramento area from 2014 until 2022. He has been a particularly strong advocate for vaccinations and the prevention of exemptions to vaccine requirements. Following a measles outbreak in 2015, Pan introduced SB 277, which eliminated philosophical and religious exemptions to vaccine requirements for school children. In 2019, he introduced a bill standardizing the process for acquiring vaccine exemptions, requiring exemption requests be made through the California Immunization Registry.

More recently, Pan introduced a bill in 2022 which would have allowed minors 15 and older to give consent to receive vaccinations for themselves. The bill was passed by the State Senate but died in the Assembly. He also introduced a bill the same year that would have required full COVID-19 immunization for school children, which died in the Senate.

Pan has introduced numerous other healthcare-related bills, including SB 852, which began the process of the state entering partnerships to directly manufacture generic versions of prescription drugs. The bill, signed in 2020, has ultimately resulted in the announcement this month by Governor Newsom that insulin pens will be sold at $11 per 10 mL pen by the state’s CalRx program through a partnership with Civica Rx.

Kevin Kiley responded to Pan’s announcement by calling out his record on vaccination legislation. He described the defeated COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school children as “too extreme even for the California Supermajority.” Kiley remains a vocal opponent of Proposition 50, recently stating in an interview on NBC that he disagrees with Texas gerrymandering and that the practice is wrong “wherever it occurs.”