Voters in California's redrawn Congressional District 6 to decide who advances past primary election
Voters around the Sacramento region are deciding who advances in the race for California Congressional District 6, which was redrawn under the voter-approved Proposition 50 in November.
The redrawn district aims to favor Democrats by including areas of Citrus Heights, much of North and East Sacramento, the city of West Sacramento, Rocklin and Roseville.
Candidates running to represent the district include Democrats Lauren Babb Tomlinson, Thien Ho, Dr. Richard Pan, Martha Guerrero, Tyler Vandenberg and Republican Michael Stansfield.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, who announced in March that he left the Republican Party to become an independent, is also running to represent the district. Despite the move away from the Republican Party, Kiley said he would caucus with the party until the end of his term.
In 2021, Kiley sought to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom during a recall effort. From 2016 to 2022, Kiley represented California's 6th State Assembly district. Since 2023, he has represented California's current 3rd District.
He said he's running to put partisanship aside and to lower the cost of living, improve public safety and build new roads.
Babb Tomlinson's campaign website said she's the only candidate who's not a career politician and "represents a new generation of leadership." She is currently the chief public affairs officer at Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte.
"I was raised in a family where government is supposed to work for people. Regardless of what party, the government should make your life better, not worse," Tomlinson said.
Ho was elected as Sacramento County District Attorney in 2022. He said he's running to expand access to healthcare, lower costs and protect working families.
"I know the law; I've enforced the law. In Congress, I will defend the rule of law," Ho said.
Dr. Pan is a practicing pediatrician who served in the California Senate from 2014 to 2022. His campaign website said he's running to fight President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s attack on health care and science.
As a lawmaker, Pan authored bills that made him a target of anti-vaccine activists, including one that removed California's personal belief exemption from immunizations, meaning that all schoolchildren have to be vaccinated.
"I worked on these problems in [the] state legislature. We made progress on those and now all that is being wound back. I'm running for Congress to get those things back on track," Dr. Pan told CBS Sacramento in an interview.
Guerrero is finishing up her second term as the mayor of West Sacramento. She said she's running because local communities rely on what happens in Congress.
"We are not feeling safe with this government. With the tariffs increasing, the Iran War, these are things that are making America unsafe. Those are the areas I feel that we can improve on as a representative," Guerrero said in her interview with CBS Sacramento.
Vandenberg's campaign website said he served in the Marine Corps.
"To me, the first thing that matters is keeping the door open. Having a member of Congress who shows up in district, hosts town halls, make sure that they're actually making themselves available to their constituents," Vandenberg said.
Stansfield told CBS Sacramento that he's representing the "voiceless."
"I'm a poor man running. I went out and got my own signatures, but I felt like this is something I can do to try to make society a little bit better," Stansfield said.