There may be no statewide race on this year's ballot with more direct impact on your wallet than this one. Make no mistake: the insurance commissioner regulates the nation's biggest insurance market, and the next one takes office in a full-blown crisis. The January 2025 fires in Los Angeles County damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 homes and killed 31 people, and families across the state are being dropped by insurers or priced out. And for the first time since the office became elected, two Democrats will face each other in November.
About Ben Allen Allen represents the 24th Senate District, covering the Westside, Hollywood, the South Bay, and the Santa Monica Mountains, and was first elected in 2014. When the Palisades Fire tore through his district in January 2025, he helped thousands of families who lost their homes navigate recovery. He wrote Proposition 4, the climate bond voters approved in 2024, and authored the law behind California's crackdown on single-use plastic straws and utensils. Before the Senate, he was president of the Santa Monica-Malibu school board and a lecturer at UCLA Law School. He holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, and UC Berkeley School of Law. He won the largest share of delegate votes at the state Democratic convention in February
About Jane Kim Kim served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2011 to 2019, where she helped make San Francisco the only city in the nation offering tuition-free community college to all residents, and passed a tax on high-value commercial real estate to fund universal affordable childcare. Before that, she served on the San Francisco school board, including as its president. After leaving office, she was California Political Director for Bernie 2020, and has spent the last four years as California Director of the Working Families Party. She holds a B.A. from Stanford and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. She is endorsed by Bernie Sanders and SEIU California, and she finished first in the June primary.
Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin is a teacher, writer, activist, podcaster and local leader with nearly 30 years experience in government, politics, and public service.
