SACRAMENTO, California — Democrat Dr Richard Pan will represent California's 6th Congressional District in Washington after the Associated Press called his race against incumbent Kevin Kiley at about 11 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3, capping one of the clearest demonstrations of what last year's Proposition 50 redistricting was designed to do. The AP count put Pan at 86,732 votes, 57.5 percent, to 64,143 votes, 42.5 percent, for Kiley, with 154 of the district's 309 precincts reporting, 49.84 percent, and an estimated 50.12 percent of the vote counted. Fox News also called the race for Pan. An earlier AP tally, reported by Elk Grove News, had Pan at 83,743 votes, 57.4 percent, to Kiley's 62,115, 42.6 percent — the share barely moved as the count grew, which is why the call came early. Results remain unofficial until California certifies them.
Source: Associated Press
Kiley did not wait for the call. The incumbent conceded at about 8:40 p.m., roughly an hour after polls closed in California, telephoning Pan more than two hours before the AP projection. Speaking to supporters at his watch party at Fourscore Coffee House in Roseville, he was blunt about the year: 'We fought really hard, as hard as I've fought in any race ever before,' he said. 'The headwinds in this election year were just too strong to overcome.' He added: 'I gave (Pan) my assurance that I and our whole team will be available to provide a smooth transition and ensure our constituents continue to be well served.' Pan, for his part, posted a short message on X on November 4: 'I'm ready to fight for California's 6th District in Congress!'
Source: Abridged (PBS KVIE)
A district drawn last year, decided this year
The newly drawn 6th District includes parts of Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties, and it exists in this form because of Proposition 50, the redistricting measure California voters approved on November 4, 2025 with a 65 percent majority, adopting a new congressional map through 2030. Before the shakeup, Kiley was a Republican representing the 3rd Congressional District, spanning much of California's border with Nevada. The two-term congressman, first elected in 2022, changed his affiliation to Independent ahead of this year's election — he appeared on the ballot as No Party Preference and caucuses with Republicans — announcing on March 2, 2026 that he would run in the redrawn 6th rather than seek re-election in the 3rd, and filing as an independent on March 6. The 6th leans Democratic but overlaps pieces of his old constituency, which is what made the race competitive enough to draw a crowded primary and split polling, some surveys neck-and-neck and others giving Pan the edge.
Source: Abridged / George Magazine
In that primary, Kiley finished first with 24 percent of the vote, one percentage point ahead of Pan, in a field that also included Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero and lone Republican Michael Stansfield. Pan made health care a closing argument: on the Sunday before the election he wrote on Facebook that 'the Republican Congress, at the direction of Donald Trump, passed the largest cut to healthcare in history,' a line aimed squarely at the national mood that election-night results across California confirmed. California entered the midterms holding 41 of its 52 House seats for Democrats, eight for Republicans and one for an independent; Proposition 50's map was drawn to change that arithmetic, and District 6 is one of the places it did.
Source: Abridged (PBS KVIE)
The doctor who wrote California's vaccine laws
Pan, a paediatrician, made his name as a state legislator championing childhood vaccination legislation. He served in both chambers of the California Legislature, most recently as a state senator representing Sacramento, West Sacramento, Elk Grove and parts of Sacramento County — much of the same ground he will now represent in Congress. He also ran for mayor of Sacramento in 2024 but did not make it out of the primary. His return to elected office puts a physician-legislator into a Democratic House majority at a moment when health-care funding, vaccination policy and the cost of care were central issues in the campaign — and when his own district's hospitals, clinics and county health services depend heavily on federal decisions made in Washington.
Source: Abridged (PBS KVIE) / Elk Grove News
Sacramento County and the Elk Grove area Pan represented in the state Senate are home to one of California's largest Punjabi and South Asian communities, and the 6th District's voters include the trucking, farming and small-business families who run the Highway 99 and Interstate 5 corridors. Their congressman now sits with the majority that will write federal health, immigration and transport funding bills for the next two years. A paediatrician who wrote state vaccine law will also be a prominent voice in the national health debates those families follow closely.
What happens next
Counting continues. California counties will keep tallying late-arriving mail ballots in the days ahead, and under California law Secretary of State Shirley Weber has until December 11 to certify the November 3 results, so the final certified margin may differ from the election-night count even though Kiley's concession settles the outcome. Pan is due to be sworn in with the new Congress on January 3, 2027, joining a House that Democrats won nationally on Tuesday night. His first test will be the one every Proposition 50 winner faces: the map that elected him runs only through 2030, and the voters of Sacramento, Placer and Yolo will judge quickly whether a statehouse doctor can deliver in Washington.