{"id":349039,"date":"2026-06-06T03:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T03:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349039\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T03:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T03:51:12","slug":"kevin-kiley-likely-to-face-richard-pan-in-november-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349039\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Kiley likely to face Richard Pan in November race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former state Sen. Richard Pan has retaken the second spot in California\u2019s 6th District primary election and appears poised to face newly Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley in November.<\/p>\n<p>Sacramento County\u2019s election results update Friday afternoon catapulted Pan past Michael Stansfield, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/election\/article315995281.html\">an unknown Republican candidate who had surprised many with his position on Tuesday night.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pan now has nearly 23% of the vote compared to Stansfield\u2019s 21.2%. Kiley leads the race with 25.4% and has been expected to advance to the general election. About <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/projects\/elections-2026\/california-primary-results-us-house\/#6\">66% of the vote has been counted<\/a> as of 4:46 p.m. Friday, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>The latest results will ease the concerns of some Democrats who worried about the sl<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/election\/article315865519.html\">ight possibility of a Kiley and Stansfield runoff.<\/a> The 6th Congressional District, which mostly consists of Sacramento and Placer County, is supposed to be a safe blue seat.<\/p>\n<p>But the number of high-profile Democratic candidates split the vote and left an early possibility that none from the party would make the general. Besides Pan, Sacramento County District Attorney Thein Ho, West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero and Lauren Babb Tomlinson, a Planned Parenthood leader, also ran in the district.<\/p>\n<p>Ho and Tomlinson both had about 11%, while Guerrero had 7.2% as of 4:30 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Kiley would have largely benefited from a November faceoff with Stansfield, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/election\/article315995281.html\">who told The Sacramento Bee he was not driven by the Republican Party\u2019s policies,<\/a> but by a desire to convince Evangelical conservative voters there are Biblical grounds to oppose Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza and support practitioners of Islam.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Kiley <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/capitol-alert\/article314857319.html\">chose to run in the 6th District<\/a> following Proposition 50\u2019s passage which was intended to oust him from his current seat in the 3rd District. Soon after, Kiley<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/california\/article314982797.html\"> announced he would become an independent after many years as a Republican.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He attributed the change to his frustration with partisanship, though political experts say it likely partially stemmed from a need to broaden his base of voters in the left-leaning 6th District.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fundamental flaw with gerrymandering is that politicians assume they can take election outcomes for themselves and they forget that, well, no, people still get to vote,\u201d Kiley said at a news conference Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The district encompasses parts of West Sacramento, Natomas, East Sacramento and Citrus Heights, Roseville and Rocklin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"summary gray\">This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 4:45 PM.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/261779112\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780717872_173_Mathew Headshot Cropped.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Mathew Miranda\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/261779112\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mathew Miranda<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Mathew Miranda is a political reporter for The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Capitol Bureau, covering how decisions in Washington, D.C., affect the lives of Californians. He is a proud son of Salvadoran immigrants and earned degrees from Chico State and UC Berkeley.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former state Sen. Richard Pan has retaken the second spot in California\u2019s 6th District primary election and appears&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-349039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}