Who is running for CA Insurance Commissioner?

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As the first anniversary of Southern California’s devastating wildfires approaches, CalMatters asked candidates for the 2026 state insurance commissioner race to share thoughts on what the state can do to help victims and stabilize insurers. Here are excerpts and a links to their answers.

Patrick Wolf

“Solving our insurance crisis starts with reorienting the California Department of Insurance. It is too weak in regulating the behavior of insurance companies, but too tightly controlling their access to the market. Customers lose both ways. . . .

“I will have the insurance department publish company-specific data and publish a claims performance report card for each insurance company, enabling customers to reward good actors and punish bad ones. Empowering customers requires strong choice and competition, but the insurance department stifles both with bureaucratic red tape.” Read more

Benjamin Allen

“We need to modernize the way the state reviews insurance rates while maintaining strong consumer protections. That means allowing the responsible use of advanced tools to predict wildfire risk and account for the actual cost of coverage, while dramatically speeding up state timelines so that decisions are made in months, not years. . . .

“I would push for neighborhood fire prevention and risk reduction programs that reduce losses in entire communities and allow insurers to write policies responsibly again. Many parts of the state already have these programs, and they are working. We need to scale them up — and fast.” Read more

Stacey Cross Street

“California doesn’t have to choose between consumer protection and a functioning insurance market. We can have both. Achieving that balance requires a re-commitment to core principles: free markets, actuarial stability, California managing wildfire risks, and enabling private sector innovation.”

“Insurance thrives on predictability and trust. When these elements are restored, capital returns, coverage expands, and our working families benefit from greater choice and better service.” Read more

Stephen Bradford

“I support the implementation of Assembly Bill 226which will allow bonds to be issued to finance claims costs, to increase the liquidity and claims-paying capacity of the FAIR plan, to restore bonds previously issued for this purpose, and to reduce dependence on costly reinsurance…

“I want to appreciate the inclusion of the FAIR plan in the California Insurance Guaranty Association as a means to more effectively allocate risk among all parties who benefit from — and are burdened by — the realities of the California market.” Read more

Robert Howell

“One reform worth pursuing is tying homeowner insurance participation to broader market access. If an insurer operates in a region and sells other lines of insurance, it must also offer coverage to homeowners there, subject to reasonable standards. Allowing companies to profit from California while abandoning homeowners pushes the risk onto families and onto the state.”

“Stronger enforcement of cancellations and non-renewals is also critical. Whole neighborhoods are being dropped with little explanation and little notice. Families who have paid premiums for years are left to struggle through no fault of their own.” Read more

Eduardo Vargas

“I will freeze any further rate increases. I will lead the department in investigations of the market conduct of the 10 largest property and casualty insurance companies in California. The investigations will reveal the exploitative nature of internal claims procedures, unfair competition or illegal coordination among insurance companies. . .

“Public insurance in California will not be modeled after the FAIR plan. Without the motive of private insurance, which is structured to deny and limit claims as much as possible, the public insurance plan would allow maximum coverage by taxing those responsible for the climate crisis. California without billionaires could fund a public insurer.” Read more

Jane Kim

“We need natural disaster insurance for everyone. This universal, affordable disaster insurance program would also invest in climate resilience and infrastructure across the country. A universal system—which currently exists in countries like New Zealand and France—stabilizes coverage, prevents mass cancellations, and creates a fund large enough to deal with natural disasters. It also allows California to invest directly in mitigation and resilience—a type of long-term risk reduction that private insurers are not authorized or incentivized to invest in…

“We also need to do more to limit CEO pay and excessive insurance profits. Californians are being asked to accept higher premiums and worse coverage while insurance executives rake in tens of millions of dollars and companies use our premiums as an investment engine.” Read more

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.