Kevin Kiley says he will not caucus with Republicans if reelected

California Congressman Kevin Kiley, who made national headlines earlier this year when he left the Republican Party to become an Independent, recently affirmed that he would not caucus with his former party if reelected this November, even if it meant being barred from serving on any committees.

When Kiley initially decided to drop his former party, he pointed to the "hyper-partisanship in Congress" as a factor behind the move; however, at the Youth Wellbeing Forum hosted by Semafor on Sept. 16, Kiley elaborated when asked by Semafor's Nicholas Wu.

"I'm working on changing the rules of the House to get rid of this crazy policy where you have to be formally affiliated with one caucus or the other simply to get committee seats," Kiley said during the forum. "I'm an independent member now, and yet the rules of the House force me to say, 'Okay, as a formality for the purposes of committee assignments, I'm going to confer with one side or the other,'."

Currently, Kiley serves as chairman of a House Education & Workforce Subcommittee, a role he was appointed to as a Republican, but to keep his seat on the subcommittee as an Independent, he must caucus with Republicans.

This caucus requirement has fueled his anti-partisan stance and led him to campaign to the House Rules Committee to change its committee-assignment practices to a party caucus or conference.

He's noted that before the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 and other reform policies, Independent members of Congress could hold committee seats, but that changed as congressional committee appointments grew more partisan.

“The committee seats should belong to the American people, and you shouldn't be denied a seat on committees just because you're an independent member,” Kiley said during the forum.

Additionally, Kiley has criticized this funneling of power to the parties as a contributing factor "to the partisanship, polarization and dysfunction that prevails in this building."

"If you don't affiliate with one of the two party caucuses, you cannot sit on standing committees and really participate in the heart of policy-making. Your voters and constituents are, in many ways, disenfranchised," he said during a House Rules Committee hearing held on Sept. 2.

To address this representation void, Kiley proposed a rule change to the committee that would allow Independent Representatives to receive at least one committee assignment on an "unranked list of six eligible standing committees" and a second standing committee assignment upon request.

Additionally, Kiley highlighted an issue with a current congressional rule, which requires representatives who leave a party caucus or conference to vacate their seats on committees and subcommittees. Kiley proposed a change that would allow representatives to keep their existing assignments rather than forcing them to vacate their seats.

In response to Kiley's proposed rule changes, Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, a ranking member of the committee, criticized Kiley's remarks by highlighting his current appointments to other committees and his voting record, which sides with Republicans.

"I watch how people vote, and you vote pretty consistently with the Republicans. So I don't know whether or not we need to create a whole other category," McGovern said.

Although Kiley has primarily voted for many Republican-backed bills, there have been several times when Kiley has voted against the Republican majority on major bills.

Notably, Kiley voted against the Secure America Act, which provided the Department of Homeland Security with nearly $70 billion in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Although the bill ultimately passed the House and Senate, Kiley was the only Republican House Representative to vote against it.

Additionally, Kiley joined his Democratic colleagues in defeating a constitutional amendment that would have frozen the number of Supreme Court justices at nine. The resolution failed to reach a majority vote largely because several Representatives did not vote; Kiley, who by September was running as an Independent, cast a key vote to ensure the amendment did not pass.

Regardless, Kiley's crusade against the House Rules Committee to expand the power of Independent Representatives only matters if he ultimately wins his reelection in November.

Kiley was one of the five congressional Republicans whose districts were redrawn under Proposition 50, a measure that temporarily redraws California's congressional maps to increase the chances of winning more Democratic seats and counter a similar effort to draw Republican-leaning districts in Texas.

Before voters approved the proposition, he represented California's 3rd Congressional District, which encompassed regions such as Roseville, a major suburb of Sacramento, and Chester, a town north of the Lassen Volcanic National Park, to Death Valley National Park in Central California.

To keep his seat in Congress, Kiley chose to run in the "more challenging race" in California's newly created 6th Congressional District, a Democratic-leaning region that includes parts of Placer and Sacramento counties.

After June's primary election, Kiley is running against Democratic candidate Richard Pan, who previously served in the California Assembly and Senate from 2012 to 2022. During his time in the Assembly, he spearheaded legislation that reduced California's uninsured rate, and he is running for Congress to hold the Trump administration accountable for how it has handled the country's healthcare.

It's unclear whether Kiley's decision to run as an independent is ultimately helping or hurting his campaign, as hardly any polls evaluate this race.

The latest survey about California's 6th Congressional District, released on July 28 by the Independent Center Voice & Independent Leadership, found that Kiley was trailing behind Pan by four points.

About 35% of voters surveyed said they would vote for Kiley, while 39% said they would support Pan. Notably, about 26% of voters surveyed said that they were unsure of who they planned to vote for in the November election.

Noe Padilla is a Northern California Reporter for USA Today. Contact him at npadilla@usatodayco.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow us on Facebook at TODAY Californian.