The FFRF Action Fund is pleased to endorse Dr. Richard Pan in his bid for California’s 6th Congressional District.
District 6 was redrawn after 2025 voters approved Proposition 50, which FFRF Action Fund supported, and is a prime target to flip from red to blue in November. Pan’s candidacy is part of the 2026 Red to Blue DCCC program, seeking to flip the House of Representatives. Pan, a pediatrician, served 12 years in the California Legislature as a state senator before terming out in 2022.
The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, dropped his Republican Party affiliation and is running as an independent. Republican Party-backed PACs are still funding Kiley’s reelection campaign, and recent campaign reports show Kiley holding almost $2 million more than Pan in campaign funds.
Dr. Pan maintains a strong commitment to science and reason. Pan has pledged to take on the current anti-science administration, and in particular, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda. Pan is concerned about the current administration’s detrimental effects on the prevention of diseases and on food safety, as well as its manipulation of public health data.
After writing and leading legislation in 2015 to abolish nonmedical exemptions for vaccinations in response to a California measles outbreak, Pan debated RFK Jr. when the anti-vaccine ideologue traveled to the state Capitol to formally oppose the bill. Pan again debated RFK Jr. in 2019, when Pan was able to pass a law tightening state oversight of medical exemptions for school and day care vaccinations in response to the rising number of medical vaccine exemptions being sought for schoolchildren.
Living costs, cuts to government services, access to health care and holding the Trump administration accountable are among Pan’s top priorities when he enters Congress.
The FFRF Action Fund joins Equality California, League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Reproductive Freedom for All, 314 Action Fund, the Center for Freethought Equality and many others in endorsing Pan. Following his victory in June’s nonpartisan primary, every Democrat who entered the race has endorsed Pan for the general election.