California Congressman Kevin Kiley says he's running for reelection. He's not sure where

David Lightman, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 5, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Reps. Kevin Kiley and Ami Bera slugging it out to win the 3rd District congressional seat? Maybe not.

Kiley, R-Roseville, told The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday in an interview in his Capitol Hill office that while he plans to seek reelection, he’s not sure where he’ll run.

His current district, which stretches from the Sacramento suburbs down to near Death Valley, has been carved into six different pieces. What’s left of the district has leaned heavily Democrat in the recent past.

“We’ll see,” the second-term congressman said when asked where he would run. “I have not thought about that really at all because my focus has been on Prop 50.”

Kiley still represents his current district through January 2027, he said, and “that will continue to be my first priority.”

After that, Kiley said, “I guess I have a lot of options.”

The new 3rd District, concentrated in the Sacramento area, is one of five newly drawn districts aimed at ousting Republican incumbents. Because Proposition 50 was approved, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan organization that rates House races, moved the outlook for the 3rd from likely Republican to likely Democrat.

Kiley said he will be talking to constituents and others. “I have no timeline,” he said.

The Ami Bera challenge

But if he stays in the 3rd District, he does have a formidable challenger. Bera, D-Sacramento, announced moments after polls closed Tuesday that he’s running in the 3rd. Kamala Harris won the district by 10 points as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.

Kiley has been a ball of political energy, helping to lead the 2021 effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom and then, a year later, winning a tough primary and election for the congressional seat.

He got an important boost that spring from Donald Trump, who endorsed him at a crucial point during the primary season and later lauded the young congressman’s victory.

In Congress, Kiley crafted an image as a partisan bulldog, routinely tearing into Newsom, even in House floor speeches. He wrote a book titled “Recall Newsom: The Case against America’s Most Corrupt Governor.”

He also got things done. His bill to overturn California’s restrictions on sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles was passed and signed into law by Trump in June.

His effort to stop federal funding for the state’s high-speed rail project got strong support from Trump’s Department of Transportation, which said in June the project had “no viable path forward.”

Kiley, at 40, had the look of a rising star, and until Tuesday, he was regarded as having a fairly safe House seat.

He said Wednesday that such political turmoil comes with the job.

“I’m pretty sanguine about the whole thing,” Kiley said. “There will always be challenges.”

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