Jane Kim ’99 elected California insurance commissioner

Jane Kim ’99 has been elected California’s next insurance commissioner, defeating state Sen. Ben Allen, in what has been widely described as the most competitive statewide candidate election in California. The Associated Press (AP) called the race close to 9 p.m. on Saturday night. Kim will be the first woman and the first Asian American elected to the position. The race marked the first time two Democrats faced each other in a general election for insurance commissioner since California voters made the office an elected position in 1988. “Thank you to everyone who believed in this campaign to make an under-the-radar, underleveraged office into a champion and watchdog for the people of California,” Kim said as she declared victory on Friday. Kim, a progressive, finished first in the June nonpartisan, “top-two” primary with 27.4% of the vote and advanced alongside Allen, a moderate backed by the California Democratic Party and much of the state’s political establishment, including U.S.

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