Richard Pan
D · U.S. House, CA-6 · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
A pediatrician and former California state senator (2014–2022) and assemblymember (2010–2014), challenging Rep. Kevin Kiley in the redrawn CA-6. At an August 17, 2026 Sacramento Bee debate he said “I’ve always said Israel has a right to exist and has a right to defend itself”; pressed repeatedly by Kiley to name the genocide, he would answer only: “we have a terrorist attack on the civilians in Israel, and we have a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and that we should seek peace in the Middle East.” As a state senator he voted for AB 2844 (August 2016), California’s anti-BDS contracting law; J Street’s PAC endorses him.
A flat 2. He holds a reliably pro-Israel position — Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself, and a vote for the state’s anti-BDS law — with no leadership on the issue, and he names Gaza’s humanitarian crisis in his own words without tying it to Israel’s need to defend itself, which is the daylight that separates a 2 from a 1/2. The counter-case is a 1/2: the Gaza line came paired with the October 7 attack as both-sides boilerplate, and he would not name the genocide.
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).