Eduardo Vargas, California insurance commissioner candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire

Ahead of the June primary election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.

Name: Eduardo “Lalo” Vargas

Current job title: Science Teacher

Age: 60

Political party affiliation: Peace and Freedom

Incumbent: No

Other political positions held: None

City where you reside: Alhambra

Campaign website or social media: lalovargas4ca.com

Why do you want to become the insurance commissioner? What does a commissioner do? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

After the Eaton and Palisades fires, thousands of homeowners and renters have been cheated out of the insurance coverage they paid for. In Altadena, where the Eaton fire destroyed and damaged nearly half of all Black family homes, the insurance industry has refused to fully pay out claims and is denying adequate compensation for families to rebuild and repair their homes.

California has become the victim of the insurance industry’s profiteering, with most residents struggling to find affordable insurance for housing, healthcare, and automobiles. By threatening to leave the state unless they receive even higher premiums and more rate hikes, the private insurance industry is attempting to hold California hostage.

I’m running for Insurance Commissioner to end the stranglehold that private insurance has over California, to investigate and hold insurance executives accountable for their crimes against consumers and to build a public insurance system that can guarantee coverage for all.

When it comes to wildfire risks, how would you balance consumer protection with a functioning, competitive market? What would you have done differently to reform homeowners’ insurance following efforts to help L.A. rebuild from the wildfires? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

The Insurance Commissioner should play a major role in lowering risk for climate disasters and making sure that any costs associated with mitigation efforts are directed to those responsible for causing the risk in the first place. It is incumbent upon the next Insurance Commissioner to create an insurance system that is independent from the private insurance industry. The foundation of California’s insurance system should not be the market, but instead a public insurer that can guarantee coverage for all — whether it’s in response to a natural disaster, a car crash, or a health emergency — everyone deserves affordable insurance as a human right. The only right that the market recognizes is the right of billionaires to make massive profits off of our misery. It’s time to flip the script on them.

Under a socialist leadership, the Department of Insurance can use the profits of the insurance industry and the billionaire class to fund people’s needs and guarantee insurance as right for all.

The state’s Department of Insurance says it is holding insurers accountable with its new “sustainable insurance strategy.” SIS allows insurance companies to increase rates based on the growing threat of climate change, passing on to their customers costs for insuring high-risk homes. In exchange, insurance companies are expected to write more polices in fire-prone parts of the state, where they’ve ended coverage for hundreds of thousands of homeowners over the past decade. The goal of SIS is to help transition property owners off the FAIR Plan. Tell us why you do — or don’t — support this strategy. (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

The sustainable insurance strategy passes off the cost of the climate crisis onto consumers. Why should consumers reward these insurance companies when they’re the ones pocketing our premiums for decades and refusing to provide the very service we pay them for? These are the same insurers that are using illegal tactics to leave survivors of the LA fires high and dry.

With any other product or service, when you pay for it, you expect to receive it. But in California, if you’re an insurance company that doesn’t provide compensation, you get rewarded with a rate hike. This is organized robbery, with the commissioners’ seal of approval. As Insurance Commissioner, I pledge to freeze rates and deny all further rate hikes until insurance companies cease their exploitative business practices and pay the survivors of the Los Angeles fires the full compensation needed to rebuild and repair their homes.

State Farm teetered on insolvency in the state after the L.A. wildfires. Everyone’s homeowners’ insurance policies rose this past year due to the consumer bailout of State Farm and the FAIR Plan, both of which sought huge rate increases. Is this fair to consumers who don’t live in fire-prone areas? Tell us why or why not. (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

This is not fair to consumers, because the average consumer is not responsible for increasing the likelihood of catastrophic fires. It is the fossil fuel industry and its billionaire owners who are responsible for creating the climate crisis, not the average consumer. The climate crisis is racking up an enormous bill, but why should those who are least responsible for the climate crisis have to pay for it? Why should the working class pay for this crisis while the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and energy industry remain untouched?

As a socialist, I believe that those responsible for causing the climate crisis should be the ones who pay for it, and it’s the billionaire class and their corporations who have destroyed our environment. It’s time to make them pay up to save our homes and save our planet before it’s too late.

Catastrophe modeling is a computer-based process that simulates thousands of potential natural or man-made disasters to estimate potential financial losses. Do you believe California could utilize catastrophe modeling that could lead to rate increases for homeowners? Why or why not? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

Catastrophe modeling should be used to adequately calculate the rising cost of insurance. However, it should not be the consumer who pays for this added cost. Under a socialist leadership, the Department of Insurance would operate under a very simple principle: the needs of people should always be put before the profits of the insurance industry. That means passing off the cost of increasing insurance to the fossil fuel industry and cutting into the insurance industry’s own profits.

The California FAIR Plan is the state’s insurer of last resort. Is it fair for the plan to charge people to recover losses on a $1 billion assessment to pay for L.A. fire claims, even when these same people weren’t living in the wildfire areas? Please explain why or why not. (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

It is not fair to pass off extra costs onto consumers. It’s clear that the FAIR Plan is not a sustainable system for consumers, but neither is the private insurance market. The reason why over 600,000 people are on the FAIR is because of the profiteering and maneuvering of the private insurance industry. By illegally boycotting the state, insurers have manufactured a crisis. By making insurance hard to find, they are holding the state hostage until we pay their ransom, which is less regulation and higher rates for less coverage.

The way out of this crisis is to confront the private insurance industry head-on and transition consumers not only off the FAIR Plan, but off the private insurance industry altogether. While insurers act as if they have all the leverage, the truth is we don’t need them, and we would be much better off if the private insurance industry were abolished.

Using the assets and the profits of the existing insurance industry, we could create a public insurance system that provides low-cost, but expansive coverage for homes, auto, and healthcare. Instead of our premiums going to fund the exuberant salaries and investments of insurance executives, that money should be recycled back into the policyholders — to fund mitigation efforts, lower risk and provide coverage to more people.

Shouldn’t major insurers like State Farm and Allstate be permitted to cancel policies and leave the marketplace? Why not just let them leave? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

The people of California deserve insurance as a human right, not a commodity sold for profit. We need an insurance system that is independent from the private insurance industry. With insurers leaving the state, we’ve seen how the market is a weak foundation for our insurance system — the only rights that are respected are the rights of billionaires to make endless profits off of our misery and leave the state. Under capitalism, homeowners do not have a right to rebuild or a right to insurance. Instead of a market system, the foundation should be a public insurer that can guarantee coverage for all — whether it’s in response to a natural disaster, a car crash, or a health emergency — everyone deserves affordable insurance as a human right.

As of March, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is moving forward with finalizing new regulations to limit public oversight and transparency in insurance rate increases under 7%. A finalized rule effectively curtails public challenges to insurance rate increases by denying compensation to groups like Consumer Watchdog and other advocacy organizations. What do you think of this plan? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

The intervenor process is an important way consumers can directly influence the rate approval process. We should make sure that consumers always retain that right to challenge an insurance company’s request for more profit, especially because the Insurance Commissioner and direction of the department can change every four years.

For those reasons, I pledge to roll back Lara’s new regulations on the intervenor process. However, I also believe that there are even more powerful ways to encourage policyholders to participate in the regulatory process. As Insurance Commissioner, I would put working people at the helm of the department — to staff major leadership positions, task forces, and even the regular staff of the department’s multiple branches, with people who have proven track records fighting for policyholders. It should be the fire survivors aided by real scientific experts, who make the regulations around remediation and smoke claims — not the representatives of the insurance industry.

Car insurance rates are skyrocketing in California, with rates jumping over 30% since 2022, driven by expensive vehicles, complex repairs and new safety requirements. What could you do to contain auto insurance costs when a driver has no accidents? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

I pledge to freeze rates and open up market conduct investigations into the largest auto insurance companies. We need to investigate the way rates and premiums are calculated in the auto insurance industry and ensure that drivers’ privacy is respected. Data collected by a driver’s car should not data is not be used against them to artificially raise their rates.

How do you think taxpayers could better understand the work of this office? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

In California, whether or not your insurance premiums go up this year is a political choice made by regulators. The Insurance Commissioner has the right and the duty to deny any rate hikes that they deem as excessive.

Unfortunately, our current insurance commissioner is afraid of the insurance industry and refuses to use his right to prevent rate increases — instead, he gifts the industry rate approval after rate approval. State Farm’s 17% rate hike last year was excessive and should never have been approved. That single approval has unleashed a tidal wave of other rate hikes. Over the holidays, Lara approved a 6.9% rate increase for Mercury Insurance and CSAA. Rate increases for Farmers Insurance Group and the FAIR Plan are next.

As Insurance Commissioner, I would immediately deny approval for all major rate increases and launch an audit of rate hikes over the last five years, and establish guidelines to quickly roll back rates. Under our leadership, insurance companies will not get higher rates if they continue to exploit policyholders and fire survivors with unethical claim procedures.

What’s a hidden talent you have? (Please answer in 250 words or less.)

I used to be a firefighter and EMT!

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