By CAMILLE VON KAENEL, POLITICO
INSURE THIS: Never before have California’s wildfire insurance problems come up so frequently on the gubernatorial campaign trail. Candidates have been using the issue to tap into voter anger as homeowners grapple with soaring premiums, canceled policies and slow payouts, after disasters like last year’s fires in Los Angeles.
The issue has become an especially sharp point of contrast for Xavier Becerra, whose proposal to declare a state of emergency and freeze property insurance rates has triggered criticism not only from industry groups, but from fellow Democrats who warn the idea could backfire legally and economically. As Becerra pulls ahead of the rest of the Democratic field after Eric Swalwell’s campaign collapse amid sexual assault allegations, the pushback is intensifying.
On the debate stage over the past few weeks, Katie Porter called Becerra’s plan “unconstitutional.” Matt Mahan said Becerra’s forceful approach is “the reason we’re in this mess in the first place,” and “will only make it worse.”
But Michael Bustamante, a Becerra campaign spokesperson, dismissed the criticism as a result of Becerra’s new frontrunner status.
“When you have a good idea that could lower costs, it’s no surprise they would go after him,” Bustamante said. Becerra’s proposed pause would allow time to investigate insurers’ rate-setting, he added. “There are legitimate questions to be asked and answered.”
Becerra has cast the plan as an essential strategy to address voters’ cost of living concerns. “This affordability crisis is hitting every family, and we have to act as if this were a break-glass moment,” he said at an April CBS debate. He’s also framed the issue in deeply personal terms, recounting how his mother lost coverage on a home she had insured for decades, and later had to pay more than double for a replacement policy.
“Why, after so many decades of paying that insurance company premium after premium after premium, for month after month, year after year, can they just all of a sudden cancel you and say goodbye?” he said.
Becerra’s proposal has drawn criticism from one of the insurance industry’s most prominent lobbyists in Sacramento: Personal Insurance Federation of California’s Rex Frazier, who argued in a Los Angeles Daily News op-ed (opens in new tab) that Becerra’s plan would violate the Constitution by robbing insurers of a reasonable rate of return. He pointed to a landmark 1989 California Supreme Court case, and added that the crisis is largely the result of California’s own regulatory structure, which insurers have long argued prevents them from adequately pricing wildfire risk.
“The silliness of declaring an emergency is, it’s the state policy that has landed us in this spot,” he said in an interview. “In what world would a price freeze increase market activity?”
Even former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in an interview that a blanket statewide rate freeze would be “very questionable” at best, legally speaking — and would need buy-in from the state’s insurance commissioner, who is independently elected to actually regulate property insurers.
Becerra, during the April CBS debate, brushed aside questions from the moderator about the legality of the proposal. “The governor can declare a state of emergency, and that’s what I would do,” he said.
The candidate’s plan has also found support with Consumer Watchdog, the advocacy group whose 1988 ballot measure, Proposition 103, temporarily froze insurance rates, and who has frequently battled with the insurance industry.
The group has argued (opens in new tab) that a blanket rate freeze is legal as long as there’s a hearing — and that the 2026 gubernatorial race gives the state government an opportunity to take a stronger hand with the industry overall.
“[Becerra] is playing to the voters, but he’s not wrong,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, in an interview. “We’re in a situation where the government’s got to step in. The insurance industry is so powerful people don’t really want to do anything radical.”
Becerra may have attracted the most attention with his proposal to freeze rates, but he’s hardly the only candidate trying to carve out a distinct position on the issue.
Porter put insurance at the center of her campaign launch, endorsing the idea of a state-backed program aimed at lowering reinsurance costs and drawing insurers back into the California market.
Mahan, for his part, has framed the crisis as a product of overregulation. And Tom Steyer has cast the market turmoil as inseparable from climate change, arguing the state should invest heavily in vegetation management and home hardening to reduce wildfire risk.
Californians already have ballots in hand, and have until June 2 to vote in the primary. — CvK
