California GOP’s insurance pick brings Jan. 6 baggage to race shaped by crisis

With California’s home insurance market in turmoil, Republicans may have reason to believe they can compete in the race for state insurance commissioner, a position long held by Democrats. But the state GOP’s endorsed candidate carries potentially heavy baggage tied to her attendance at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., which could alienate many moderate voters needed to secure victory.

The candidate, Stacy Korsgaden, an insurance agent from San Luis Obispo County, confirmed her attendance but said she neither participated in nor condoned the violence that followed the rally as Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building. Trump organized the event to support his false claims that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

In an emailed statement responding to multiple interview requests, Korsgaden wrote, “Biden was elected President and I respect the peaceful transfer of power that is fundamental to our democracy.” She said she attended the rally to hear Trump speak, believing it would be his final address. There is no evidence she entered the Capitol.

Korsgaden’s presence at the rally was first reported by the San Luis Obispo Tribune in 2021, following her narrow loss in a local county supervisor’s election the year prior. In an opinion piece published shortly after the article, Korsgaden defended traveling to the rally, writing, “If we believe there is reason to question our election system while others tell us the system is fine, why is it not okay to verify the sanctity of the vote?”

Her attendance has received little attention so far in the insurance commissioner’s race.

Korsgaden is among a dozen candidates — including five Republicans — in the June 2 primary vying to become the next insurance commissioner, a position tasked with leading the agency that approves rate increases for home and auto plans and enforces consumer protections. The role has taken on greater significance over the past decade as increasingly destructive wildfires across the state have prompted insurers to hike rates and cancel coverage for many thousands of homeowners.

With the state GOP’s endorsement, a crucial signal to voters in a down-ballot race, Korsgaden has a strong chance of advancing to the November general election. The top two vote-getters in the primary will advance regardless of party affiliation, and a Republican candidate has made it out of the primary in eight of the nine commissioner elections since the position was established in 1988.

But with registered Democratic voters outnumbering Republicans in the state by almost two to one, a Trump-aligned candidate like Korsgaden has little chance of becoming the next insurance commissioner, said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University. Trump won just 38% of the vote in California in 2024.

California voters have not elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006, when they chose Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor and Steve Poizner for insurance commissioner. Both left office in 2011.

Still, given that nearly a quarter of California voters are independents, a moderate GOP-backed candidate could have a shot in the insurance commissioner’s race by arguing that Democrats have failed to solve a deepening home insurance crisis, McCuan said.

But as Trump now claims the support of an overwhelming majority of California Republican voters and many lawmakers across the state, McCuan said the state GOP often seeks to endorse Trump-aligned candidates that are “more conservative and potentially out of the mainstream than the average California voter.”

Korsgaden’s presence at the Jan. 6 rally may put her well outside of that mainstream. According to a 2021 poll by UC Berkeley, two-thirds of California voters agreed that Trump — who urged supporters at the rally to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol to protest the certification of the election — was a major factor contributing to the storming of the Capitol building.

One of Korsgaden’s Republican rivals, Merritt Farren, a former attorney for Disney and Amazon who was until recently a registered Democrat, argued in a statement that as a moderate, he, unlike Korsgaden, can appeal to a broad range of the electorate, making him the candidate “Republicans should want to be in the General Election.”

The state GOP and Republican state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones did not respond to questions about their endorsements of Korsgaden and her attendance at the rally.

In the governor’s race, the state GOP did not endorse a candidate, splitting its support between conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Hilton has pulled ahead of Bianco in the polls since winning Trump’s endorsement in April.

Other Republicans in the insurance commissioner’s contest include Robert Howell, a Silicon Valley businessman who lost the 2022 general election for insurance commissioner; Eric Thor Aarnio, a contractor; and Sean Lee, a financial services executive.

On the Democratic side, none of the four candidates secured the necessary support to win the party’s endorsement to replace termed-out Democratic Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. They include Los Angeles state Sen. Ben Allen, former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, former Los Angeles County state Sen. Steven Bradford and San Francisco financial manager Patrick Wolff.

Korsgaden argues that her years of experience as an insurance agent are what set her apart from the crowded field. In her statement to this news organization, she highlighted her plan to establish a new business division within the insurance department to spur competition and bring down costs.

“I am running for Insurance Commissioner and experience matters,” she said. “I have the technical competence to make a difference for Californians.”

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