U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) on Monday decided to run in California’s carved-up 6th Congressional District, a Democratic-leaning area that will be an uphill climb for the Republican lawmaker.
Kiley, a former high school English teacher whose district was targeted and redrawn last year to tilt the 2026 elections in favor of Democrats, will now face a crowded field of challengers. He was widely expected to run in the 5th Congressional District.
“It’s true that I was fully prepared to run in the new 5th, having tested the waters and with polls showing a favorable outlook in a ‘safe’ district. But doing what’s easy and what’s right are often not the same,” he posted on X. “And at the end of the day, as much as I love the communities in the 5th District that I represent now – and as excited as I was about the new ones – seeking office in a district that doesn’t include my hometown didn’t feel right.”
Kiley currently represents California’s 3rd Congressional District, a conservative-leaning area that is also the state’s most geographically diverse. It spans most of the California-Nevada border, including Sierra, Nevada, Placer, Alpine, Mono, and Yuba counties, as well as parts of El Dorado and Sacramento counties. The district spans Lake Tahoe, Death Valley National Park, and five national forests, making it one of the most rural areas in the state. The new 3rd District was split into six factions, and Kiley has said he would not run in any of them.
Kiley’s new district spans parts of West Sacramento, East Sacramento, Natomas, Roseville, and Rocklin.
“The new 6th District is Democratic-leaning but open-minded,” Kiley said. “While this will be a more challenging race, I believe we can build a winning coalition for common sense.”
Kiley has been open about his disdain for Proposition 50, a redistricting ballot measure passed last year that redrew five congressional districts across California. It was pitched to voters as a counter to President Donald Trump telling Republican-led states to redraw their maps to favor GOP candidates ahead of November’s election. Kiley told the Washington Examiner that the mid-decade redistricting measure was “a direct attack on democracy” and said it set a dangerous precedent, trampled on the will of the people, and risked election errors.
Kiley’s decision averts a messy intraparty showdown with Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) in the safely Republican 5th Congressional District, which stretches from near Lake Tahoe to the Mojave Desert along the eastern border of the state.
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Kiley will instead face a crowded field that includes former state Sen. Richard Pan and Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, both Democrats.
Jeff Le, who served as a deputy Cabinet secretary to former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown, told the Washington Examiner that Kiley would be a “heavy underdog” in the 6th District but added that Kiley’s decision to move away from Trump and criticize House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) now made sense.
