Democrat Richard Pan regains second in California's 6th District primary, set to face Rep. Kevin Kiley

Mathew Miranda, The Sacramento Bee on Jun 5, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Former state Sen. Richard Pan has retaken the second spot in California’s 6th District primary election and appears poised to face newly Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley in November.

Sacramento County’s election results update Friday afternoon catapulted Pan past Michael Stansfield, an unknown Republican candidate who had surprised many with his position on Tuesday night.

Pan now has nearly 23% of the vote compared to Stansfield’s 21.3%, according to The Associated Press. Kiley leads the race with 25.2% and has been expected to advance to the general election. About 63% of the vote has been counted.

The latest results will ease the concerns of some Democrats who worried about the slight possibility of a Kiley and Stansfield runoff. The 6th Congressional District, which mostly consists of Sacramento and Placer County, is supposed to be a safe blue seat.

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.

Ho and Tomlinson both had about 11%, while Guerrero had 7.2% as of 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Kiley would have largely benefited from a November faceoff with Stansfield, who told The Sacramento Bee he was not driven by the Republican Party’s policies, but by a desire to convince Evangelical conservative voters there are biblical grounds to oppose Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and support practitioners of Islam.

Earlier this year, Kiley chose to run in the 6th District following Proposition 50’s passage that was intended to oust him from his current seat in the 3rd District. Soon after, Kiley announced he would become an independent after many years as a Republican.

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.

“The 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,” Kiley said at a news conference Thursday.

The district encompasses parts of West Sacramento, Natomas, East Sacramento and Citrus Heights, Roseville and Rocklin.

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