Democrats Jane Kim and Ben Allen are leading early in the race for California insurance commissioner, initial counts of the vote by mail ballots showed Tuesday night, shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m.
Kim is holding a slim lead over Allen.
The election has become a bit of a high-profile contest, where a range of policy ideas were floated in the primary, as increasingly frequent disasters have rocked the private homeowners’ insurance market in California.
In the past, the job of insurance commissioner has been one of the lower-profile statewide positions, charged with regulating the insurance industry — everything from auto and life insurance to property and casualty.
The race, which has attracted more attention and money than usual, comes amid concerns over last year’s wildfires that erupted in the Los Angeles area, and led to higher insurance premiums for homeowners throughout the state.
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The next insurance commissioner will respond to a range of political problems, especially insurance industry demands to raise premiums to reflect growing wildfire risk, and challenges to keep at a distance from insurers who were accused during the campaign of being in the current commissioner’s pocket.
Regardless of political party, the top vote-getters will move on to the Nov. 3 general election, with the winner assuming the mantle of a job that has plenty of tough decisions to make.
For the 2026 race, a crowded field of 11 candidates was vying to replace term-limited incumbent Ricardo Lara, the eighth person in the commissioner role since it became an elected position in 1988.
California’s Secretary of State office will continue to tally votes daily until all are counted. Continue to check back here for updates.
In the campaign leading up to the primary, forums held in the hard-hit Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities attracted victims of the January 2025 wildfires who felt shortchanged by the insurance system that failed to pay out claims on smoke damages or didn’t pay at all. Some people complained about paying higher premiums without receiving any of the benefits of insurance coverage.
At an Altadena forum last month, candidates called for tougher sanctions against insurance companies that they said mishandled claims. Some of the attendees expressed the need for stiffer sanctions for State Farm and other insurers for failing to pay out claims on a speedier basis. But after last year’s deadly fires, State Farm claimed it was in a precarious spot financially and needed an emergency $1.02 billion lifeline to stay afloat.
Also see: California insurance commissioner candidates vow reform, fixes for FAIR Plan
The next insurance commissioner will face difficult policy decisions regarding future rate hikes and ways to keep insurers from leaving the state.
In March, State Farm won a 17% emergency rate increase to partially fill the gap in losses. But last month, Lara took legal action against State Farm, alleging the company mishandled wildfire claims in the devastated Los Angeles fire zones. In a state court filing, the insurance regulator said it is seeking as much as $4 million in penalties on 398 violations of state law from State Farm following a seven-month-old investigation.
Lara claimed the company underpaid claims and was slow to investigate damage to homes and possible contamination from smoke, caused by conflagrations that destroyed huge swaths of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The current commissioner also wants to prohibit State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, from writing new policies for a year.
The candidates have vowed to push for ways to resolve California’s homeowners’ insurance crisis, which they maintain is far from over.
On the campaign trail in the Pacific Palisades in March, candidates were barraged with questions from people in attendance who accused L.A. Mayor Karen Bass of “failed leadership” for insufficient firefighting resources at the time of last year’s fires and concerns over the lack of transparency in ratemaking policies.
The candidate who wins in November will be faced with addressing the state’s insurer of last resort — referred to as the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR Plan. Nearly two weeks ago, the FAIR Plan got the green light to raise rates 29.1% for certain homeowners starting Oct. 15 — on the eve of the general election.