Kevin Kiley (politician)

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For other people named Kevin Kiley, see Kevin Kiley (disambiguation).

Kevin Kiley
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 3rd district
Assumed office
January 3, 2023
Preceded byJohn Garamendi (redistricted)
Member of the California State Assembly
from the 6th district
In office
December 5, 2016 – November 30, 2022
Preceded byBeth Gaines
Succeeded byKevin McCarty (redistricted)
Personal details
Born
Kevin Patrick Kiley

(1985-01-30) January 30, 1985 (age 39)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Chelsee Gardner
​
(m. 2023)​
[1]
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Yale University (JD)
Loyola Marymount University (MA)
Signature
WebsiteHouse website

Kevin Patrick Kiley (born January 30, 1985) is an American politician, attorney, and former educator serving as the U.S. representative for California's 3rd congressional district since 2023.[2] A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 6th district in the California State Assembly from 2016 to 2022. Kiley was a candidate to replace California governor Gavin Newsom in the voter-initiated recall election on September 14, 2021.[3]

Early life, education, and career[edit]

Kiley grew up in the Sacramento area, where his father was a physician and his mother was a special education teacher. He attended local public schools, including Cavitt Junior High School and Granite Bay High School, where he was valedictorian.[4][5]

He graduated with an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 2007,[5] completing a thesis titled "The Civil Rights Movement and the Reemergence of Classical Democracy".[6] Upon graduation, he became a teacher in Los Angeles through Teach for America, teaching for two years at Manual Arts High School while earning his teaching credentials at Loyola Marymount University.[5] In 2008, he was recognized as a national debate champion while participating as a member of the Loyola debate team.[7]

Kiley later attended Yale Law School,[5] worked as an editor of the Yale Law Journal,[8] and clerked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.[9] He returned to California to join the law firm Irell & Manella, where he helped prepare an intellectual property theft case for T-Mobile against Chinese technology company Huawei that was the basis for a federal criminal investigation.[5][10] He was an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law.[11]

He resides in Rocklin, California.[12]

Political career[edit]

In 2016, Kiley was elected to the California State Assembly.[5] In May 2016, Kiley told The Sacramento Bee that he supported then-Ohio Governor John Kasich in the 2016 United States presidential election.[13] In 2018, Kiley authored legislation to make it easier for students to transfer school districts.[14]

After winning a second term in the State Assembly, Kiley ran for the State Senate in California's 1st District. He finished second in the primary, but lost the runoff to fellow Assemblyman Brian Dahle. Soon after the start of the new legislative session, Kiley introduced legislation to close for private use a controversial DMV office that exclusively catered to state legislators and staff. In a statement to The Sacramento Bee, Kiley said: "This is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people, not an oligarchy where a gilded political class enjoys privileges that aren’t available to the people that we represent."[15]

According to the Associated Press, Kiley is "a conservative who often flirts with the fringes of the GOP".[5] He has said climate change is real, but opposed Governor Gavin Newsom's executive orders requiring all new vehicles in California to be zero emission by 2035 and banning oil-drilling by 2045.[16][5] He is a supporter of charter schools.[17] Kiley introduced legislation to ban local and state governments from implementing vaccine requirements.[12] After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump refused to concede while making claims of fraud, Kiley refused to say whether Biden won the 2020 election legitimately.[18] Kiley has said his position is to "stay out of national politics altogether", and that "national politics is a distraction that is used frankly by those in power in Sacramento [as] kind of a smokescreen for their own failures."[5]

2021 California gubernatorial recall election[edit]

Main article: 2021 California gubernatorial recall election

Though he voted to authorize $1 billion of emergency pandemic spending for Governor Newsom in March 2020, saying "to trust in Governor Newsom’s leadership and listen to his guidance", Kiley later said Newsom "made a mockery of that trust" and, alongside fellow California legislator James Gallagher, sued in June 2020 to remove Newsom's emergency powers. Kiley lost the case on appeal.[5] Kiley published a book in January 2021 titled Recall Gavin Newsom: The Case Against America's Most Corrupt Governor.[19]

On July 6, 2021, Kiley announced his candidacy for governor of California in the 2021 recall election.[20][21][22][23] According to the New York Times, he was one of the "more moderate Republican recall candidates,"[24] while the Los Angeles Times deemed him and John Cox the "more traditional conservatives" in the election, which failed to remove Newsom from office.[18][25]

Kiley indicated his support for school choice during the campaign and said teachers' unions in the state were too powerful (with the California Teachers Association having been Newsom's top donor), to students' detriment.[12] Though vaccinated against COVID-19, Kiley pledged to overturn vaccine and mask mandates Newsom implemented if he became governor.[5]

United States Senate vacancies[edit]

In 2020, Kiley urged passage of his bill that would require the potential successor of then-candidate for vice president and Senator Kamala Harris to be elected by California's voters and not appointed by the governor;[26] he reiterated that view during the 2021 gubernatorial recall campaign by pledging to allow voters to pick a replacement for Senator Dianne Feinstein if he became governor and her seat became vacant.[27] Kiley later flagged a constitutional issue with Newsom's appointment of Alex Padilla to replace Harris and Padilla's expected service until January 2023, since the U.S. Constitution stipulates that such appointees serve "until the people fill the vacancies by election".[28]

After lawmakers in the state assembly passed a bill to address the issue that would require voters to select two senators for the same seat—one to serve in the lame-duck session from November 2022 to January 2023 and another for January 2023 to January 2029—Kiley said Newsom should have called a special election to fill Harris's seat much earlier, and that the bill would solve the problem in "the most undemocratic way possible".[28] Newsom eventually signed the bill, which meant California's voters had to vote simultaneously for both the lame-duck Senate seat and the next full Senate term.[29]

U.S. House of Representatives[edit]

Elections[edit]

2022[edit]

Main article: 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in California § District 3

On December 29, 2021, Kiley announced he would run for the U.S. House in California's newly redrawn 3rd congressional district, which includes all or parts of Inyo, Sacramento, Mono, Alpine, El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, Sierra, Yuba, and Plumas counties.[3]

Committee assignments[edit]

For the 118th Congress:[30]

Caucus memberships[edit]

Electoral history[edit]

Legislative[edit]

Electoral history of Kevin Kiley
Year Office Party Primary General Result Swing Ref.
Total % P. Total % P.
2016 State Assembly Republican 22,019 16.34% 2nd 149,415 64.59% 1st Won Hold [32]
2018 Republican 80,843 61.34% 1st 131,284 58.02% 1st Won Hold [33]
2019 State Senate Republican 54,290 27.88% 2nd 72,169 46.06% 2nd Lost Hold [34]
2020 State Assembly Republican 104,412 58.02% 1st 178,559 58.96% 1st Won Hold [35]
2021 Governor Republican Does not appear 255,490 3.47% 6th Lost Hold [36]
2022 U.S. House Republican 93,552 39.69% 1st 181,438 53.65% 1st Won Win [37]
Source: Secretary of State of California | Statewide Election Results

Gubernatorial[edit]

2021 California gubernatorial recall election[38][39]
Vote on recall Votes Percentage
checkY No 7,944,092 61.88
Yes 4,894,473 38.12
Invalid or blank votes 54,013 4.19
Totals 12,892,578 100
Voter turnout 58.45%
Rank Party Candidate Votes Percentage
1 Republican Larry Elder 3,563,867 48.4
2 Democratic Kevin Paffrath 706,778 9.6
3 Republican Kevin Faulconer 590,346 8.0
4 Democratic Brandon M. Ross 392,029 5.3
6 Republican John H. Cox 305,095 4.1
7 Republican Kevin Kiley 255,490 3.5
All other candidates 1,547,963 21.03
Total valid votes 7,361,568 100
Invalid or blank votes 5,531,010 42.90
Totals 12,892,578 100
Voter turnout 58.45%

Personal life[edit]

Kiley married Chelsee Gardner on December 30, 2023. The ceremony took place at Pioneer Church in Auburn, California, the oldest church in Placer County. Chelsee and Kevin met at a community event in Rocklin, California, celebrating the Fourth of July. Kevin proposed to Chelsee in the summer of 2023 in the same park where they first met. The couple reside in Roseville.[40]

Works[edit]

  • Kevin Kiley (2021). Recall Gavin Newsom: The Case Against America's Most Corrupt Governor. ISBN 9781098361587.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Office of Representative Kiley Announces Marriage to Chelsee Gardner". January 2, 2024.
  2. ^ "Republican Kiley captures California US House seat". AP News. November 22, 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Republican Assemblyman Kiley Running for Eastern Sierra Congressional Seat". December 29, 2021.
  4. ^ "Kiley | Biography".
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Longshot recall candidate Kiley may emerge as a GOP leader". AP News. August 23, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  6. ^ "Spring 2007 Thesis Titles. Committee on Degrees in Social Studies" (PDF). harvard.edu. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  7. ^ "History – US Universities Debate Association". Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  8. ^ "The Yale Law Journal - Masthead: Volume 121". www.yalelawjournal.org. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  9. ^ "The Voter's Self Defense System". Vote Smart. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  10. ^ "Honor Roll of Volunteer Attorneys 2013 | Central District of California | United States District Court". www.cacd.uscourts.gov. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  11. ^ "California Trailblazers Names Assembly Candidate Kevin Kiley 'Rising Star' | California Trailblazers". catrailblazers.com. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  12. ^ a b c Christopher, Ben (August 24, 2021). "Who is Kevin Kiley and what would he do as governor?". CalMatters. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  13. ^ "GOP lawmaker joins recall race targeting California governor". Associated Press. July 6, 2021.
  14. ^ Castillo, Elizabeth (July 17, 2018). "Don't like your kid's school district? Transferring could become easier—if they're being bullied". CalMatters. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  15. ^ Ioannou, Filipa (April 5, 2019). "GOP assemblyman wants to close 'secret DMV' used by Sacramento politicians". SFGATE. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  16. ^ "Republican recall hopefuls seek to differentiate themselves in San Francisco debate". Los Angeles Times. August 20, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  17. ^ "NorCal Republicans Say a Local Focus, Not National Politics, Will Help Them Win This Year".
  18. ^ a b "How Trump-hating California got a slate of recall candidates who supported Trump". Los Angeles Times. August 21, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  19. ^ Ashton, Adam (January 19, 2021). "Show of force in the capital + Newsom recall, the book + How the pandemic stresses moms". The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  20. ^ Kiley, Kevin [@KevinKileyCA] (July 6, 2021). "It's official. I'm running to replace Gavin Newsom as the Governor of California" (Tweet). Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021 – via Twitter.
  21. ^ KRON4 Staff (July 6, 2021). "Assemblyman Kevin Kiley announces he's running to replace Newsom". KRON4.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ Lara Korte (July 6, 2021). "A new Republican enters California recall race to replace Gavin Newsom". Sacramento Bee.
  23. ^ Meghan Roos (July 6, 2021). "California Lawmaker Kevin Kiley Enters Race to Recall Gavin Newsom". Newsweek.
  24. ^ Peters, Jeremy W. (September 13, 2021). "In California, Republicans Struggle to Expand the Recall's Appeal". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  25. ^ "California recall: The 2022 campaign starts now". September 15, 2021.
  26. ^ Sheeler, Andrew (August 11, 2020). "'Let's go win this.' What California Democrats are saying about Biden's VP pick of Kamala Harris". The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  27. ^ "National Dems reportedly quietly worried about Newsom recall, Feinstein". August 14, 2021.
  28. ^ a b Hoeven, Emily (May 25, 2021). "An unusual addition to California's 2022 ballot". Calmatters.
  29. ^ "Californians will vote multiple times in 2022 for the same U.S. Senate seat". Los Angeles Times. September 27, 2021.
  30. ^ "Kevin Kiley". Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  31. ^ "Membership". Republican Study Committee. December 6, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  32. ^ Primary election:
    General election:
  33. ^ Primary election:
    General election:
  34. ^ Primary election:
    General election:
  35. ^ Primary election:
    General election:
  36. ^ "Statement of Vote: September 4, 2021, California Gubernatorial Recall Election" (PDF). sos.ca.gov. Sacramento: Secretary of State of California. 2021. p. 11. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  37. ^ Primary election:
    General election:
  38. ^ "California Gubernatorial Recall Election Results". Election Results.
  39. ^ Weber, Shirley (October 22, 2021). "Statement of Vote, September 14, 2021 California Gubernatorial Recall Election" (PDF). Office of the California Secretary of State. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
  40. ^ "Office of Representative Kiley Announces Marriage to Chelsee Gardner". Kevin Kiley. Retrieved January 3, 2024.

External links[edit]

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 3rd congressional district
2023–present 		Incumbent
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by United States representatives by seniority
394th 		Succeeded by
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