Ben Allen, a Democrat, is running for California Insurance Commissioner in the November 2026 general election against fellow Democrat Jane Kim, for the open seat left by term-limited incumbent Ricardo Lara. Allen holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a graduate degree from Cambridge, and a law degree from UC Berkeley. He served as a University of California student regent and on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified school board before his election to the State Senate in 2014, where he has served since, currently chairing the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and a budget subcommittee on natural resources.
Allen authored the 2016 Voter’s Choice Act expanding vote-by-mail access, 2022 legislation reducing plastic pollution, and a $10 billion water and wildfire-prevention bond approved by voters in 2024, along with 2025 legislation addressing wildfire recovery. He is campaigning on consumer protection, wildfire recovery, and requiring insurers to disclose fossil-fuel investments, and has pledged to reject campaign contributions from the insurance industry, though 2025 reporting found his campaign had accepted some such donations before saying it would refund them.
