California's election for insurance commissioner on November 3 pits state Sen. Ben Allen against former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim — both Democrats. It is the first time since the office became elected that two Democrats have faced off in the general election. In the June 2 top-two primary, Kim took about 27.4% of the vote (2.33 million votes) and Allen about 19.4% (1.65 million), advancing past nine other candidates. Incumbent Ricardo Lara, in office since 2018, is term-limited after eight years overseeing the department through the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in state history.
The race unfolds against a collapsing homeowners' insurance market. In recent years, carriers have stopped writing new policies or declined renewals, especially in high-risk areas, citing rising wildfire risk from climate change and post-pandemic inflation. Homeowners with nowhere to go have turned to the FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort mandated by law and run by an alliance of insurers. It has grown to more than 684,000 policies in force as of March — up 152% since September 2022 — and has warned about its ability to keep paying claims after major disasters. Many survivors of last year's Los Angeles County fires are still struggling to rebuild and have sued insurance companies.
Jane Kim offers the bolder answer: a state-run natural disaster insurance fund covering all Californians, with everyone in one pool paying premiums based on risk. She points to New Zealand as the model, where private carriers handle standard home policies while disaster coverage runs through a public entity. Her argument: a public system would be built to reduce risk, not cancel coverage when risk rises. "The insurance industry is not designed for the conditions of today," she told The Insurer. Her platform also demands that insurers spend at least 70% of auto premiums on claims, bans rate hikes, dropped coverage or adverse actions based on credit scores or claims history, penalizes payment delays, and creates a public insurer performance dashboard.
Ben Allen takes the opposite path: repair the private market rather than build a parallel one. He proposes cracking down on insurers that deny and delay claims, enforcing post-disaster compliance, increasing the department's transparency and accountability, and shrinking FAIR Plan enrollment by pulling homeowners back into the regular market. "My plan will restore a competitive insurance market, ensure Californians are treated fairly after disasters, and build resilient communities that can withstand the climate challenges ahead," his campaign says.
The commissioner regulates California's property and casualty insurance market, and the winner's policies will ripple into housing costs, the ability to start businesses, and the state economy. Whoever wins faces the same knot: climate risk keeps rising, insurers keep voting with their feet, and the FAIR Plan keeps getting heavier. Both candidates promise coverage that is available and affordable — they just disagree completely on how to get there. On November 3, California voters will pick one of those two answers.