In California congressional bid, Richard Pan hopes to take vaccine fight back to Washington

Nicole Nixon, The Sacramento Bee on Oct 14, 2025

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dr. Richard Pan, a former Sacramento lawmaker and architect of California’s strict child vaccine laws, announced he will run for Congress in California’s 3rd Congressional District, setting up a challenge with incumbent Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley.

Pan served in the California Legislature from 2012 to 2022. While he was best known for passing bills to crack down on school vaccine requirements, he also authored legislation to expand access to health insurance and stabilize the market.

Last year he ran for Sacramento mayor and was eliminated in the primary. He is a pediatrician and teaches public health at UC Davis.

In Congress, Pan hopes to push back on the Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid and against allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire, a move that could spike insurance premiums for some and has been a central sticking point in the government shutdown.

“Kevin Kiley has shown himself to be someone who is a reliable vote for the president’s agenda,” Pan said in an exclusive interview with The Bee. “He’s not representing the people of his district.”

The 3rd District’s lines could change under Proposition 50, which asks California voters on Nov. 4 to adopt a congressional map gerrymandered to help Democrats pick up five seats as part of a national redistricting fight over control of the House.

Currently the 3rd District leans Republican but if Prop. 50 passes it would shift to favor Democratic candidates.

While Pan said the ballot question is “about holding this administration accountable,” he insisted it didn’t factor into his decision to run. He cited his 2012 Assembly victory, when he flipped a seat that had been held by a Republican as a reason he thinks he can win.

“Congress and the federal government are dysfunctional right now and when I first ran for the state assembly, they said the same thing about California’s legislature,” he said. “We were on the cover of The Economist saying that that state was ungovernable. … After I got in there, we passed on time budgets, and we took a $24 billion deficit into a $30 billion reserve.”

Pan enters the race with endorsements from California Reps. Judy Chu and Dave Min, who each praised him as a compassionate public servant.

“Dr. Richard Pan has always led with compassion, integrity, and a deep commitment to public health and fairness,” said Chu, D-Monterey Park. “In Congress, I know he’ll fight tirelessly to protect families’ health care, stand up to extremism, and deliver real solutions that make life more affordable and secure for everyone.”

“I had the honor of serving alongside Dr. Richard Pan in the California State Senate, where I saw firsthand his integrity, compassion, and determination to get results for working families,” said Min, D-Irvine. “In Congress, I know he’ll bring that same steady leadership to expand health care, lower costs, and protect our communities.”

Vaccine stalwart hopes to take on Trump administration

In the legislature, Pan’s vaccine proposals drew fierce pushback from parents and anti-vaccine activists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. Pan was attacked on the street in downtown Sacramento and said he received death threats over the bills. During the final night of the 2019 legislative session, a protester threw a cup of menstrual blood onto the Senate floor in protest of two of Pan’s bills, splattering lawmakers and delaying votes.

“I stood up to (RFK Jr.) and his extremists and the laws passed,” Pan said.

Nationwide, measles cases are at a 30-year high and Pan credits his legislation, which removed the ability for families to get vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren based on personal belief alone, for stopping the disease from spreading in California as it has in some other states.

“What we’re seeing coming out of Washington right now is basically trying to reverse all that work,” he said. “We have RFK Jr. making it harder for people to get vaccines and he’s spreading this information about vaccines and autism and other things – along with President Trump – from the cabinet room.”

He expressed alarm at turnover at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are under Kennedy’s purview, as well as the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez after she declined to resign under pressure from the Trump administration.

As a former lawmaker, Pan said he appreciates what it means to be one person in a large body. But he said as someone who has twice gone head-to-head with RFK Jr, he is “familiar with some of his thinking” and “uniquely positioned to be able to call him out when he is endangering people.”

“I’m the right person to represent the people in the district,” he said. “To be sure that their health care is protected, to be sure that we don’t have preventable outbreaks of disease and that we keep people safe in our communities.”

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