California Insurance Commissioner Candidate Forum

The California Department of Insurance regulates the insurance industry, with consumer protection as its core tenet. The insurance commissioner heads the Department of Insurance, managing more than 1,400 employees and overseeing 1,600 insurance companies. Ricardo Lara, the current commissioner, has faced increasingly challenging circumstances. Devastating wildfires in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2025 have burned tens of thousands of homes; 7 of California’s 12 top insurers have pulled back from the California market since Lara took office in 2019. Meanwhile, the California FAIR Plan—the state-run public home insurance program designed to be the “insurer of last resort”—has more than doubled its policyholders between 2019 and 2023, due to the difficulty faced by homeowners of finding suitable coverage on the private market. As a result of the dramatic increase in policyholders, the FAIR Plan faced financial insolvency in 2023 and 2025, resulting in a $1 billion bailout from private insurers to cover claims. Additionally, critics say major insurance companies have continuously underestimated the payouts for homeowners in the case of total loss. In recent years, most people who have experienced a major fire have found out that their insurance will not pay them enough to rebuild. For consumers, these growing problems mean higher premiums where coverage is available, fewer insurer choices, stricter underwriting standards, and, in some cases, an inability to obtain comprehensive coverage at all. Homeowners in high-risk areas are increasingly pushed into bare-bones policies or layered coverage solutions. In March 2025, for the first time in California history, the California insurance commissioner approved emergency, interim rate hikes designed to stabilize State Farm after immense financial strain from the LA wildfires. These hikes averaged 17 percent for homeowners, 15 percent for renters/condos, and up to 38 percent for rental dwellings. Experts say that the next insurance commissioner will inherit a growing crisis in which nearly all the proposed solutions are likely to cost consumers. This public forum will provide voters with an opportunity to hear directly from candidates for insurance commissioner on key issues affecting Californians, including consumer protection, climate risk, insurance affordability, and regulatory oversight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices