Meet Dr. Pan
Dr. Richard Pan is a proud father, small business owner, educator, and public health advocate, who dedicated his life to building healthy communities, no matter how difficult the challenge.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Dr. Pan realized the American Dream through hard work and a good public school education. After earning his medical degree and a masters degree in public health, he went on to lead UC Davis’ Pediatric Residency Program.
Dr. Pan founded Communities and Physicians Together, a grassroots program partnering pediatricians with local neighborhoods. He co-founded 'Healthy Kids Healthy Future,' ensuring health, dental, and vision coverage for over 65,000 children in the Sacramento region.
In partnership with the Sacramento City Unified School District, he collaborated with school nurses and teachers to assist children with special needs, ensuring they could learn in school.
But in 2010, the Great Recession and budget cuts loomed over the programs he built with the community. So Dr. Pan organized a coalition of neighbors, small businesses, unions, and health professionals, and ran for State Assembly where, on a nationally bad night for Democrats, he flipped a seat from Red to Blue.
As a legislator, he worked to restore confidence in California at a time when critics deemed the state “ungovernable” by stabilizing the budget and building reserves to prevent further budget cuts that endangered the health and safety of Sacramento families.
One of his first actions in the Legislature was to keep the City of Sacramento’s fire stations open after the city’s budget deficit threatened to shutter public safety services. Collaborating with firefighters, Dr. Pan helped secure $90 million in new federal funding for California’s emergency responders including millions for Sacramento area neighborhoods.
He also authored state laws to ensure health insurance companies could not discriminate against patients with pre-existing conditions and supported reproductive health clinics.
In 2014, Dr. Pan defied the odds again, by defeating career politicians in the most expensive State Senate election in recent history. Then Dr. Pan got to work focused on the fundamentals: health, safety, and making our communities stronger.
Pan authored laws to ban smoking at youth sports and reduce gun violence, expand newborn screening and pregnancy services, fund youth mental health services, control the cost of prescription drugs and health care, and increase child support payments for families.
TIME magazine named Dr. Pan a “hero” for his groundbreaking legislation to increase school vaccination rates to halt the Disneyland measles outbreak in 2015 in the face of vitriolic attacks by RFK Jr. and anti-vaccine extremists. Despite being stalked at his home and business, physically assaulted, and relentless harassment, these personal attacks did not deter Dr. Pan from his commitment to protecting children.
Labor unions, small business groups, and community organizations have all acknowledged Dr. Pan for his leadership, particularly for his role in spearheading numerous significant achievements within the Legislature.
In Congress, Dr. Pan will fight to protect health care; to make food, housing, education and health care more affordable, not less; and to ensure all Americans have equal justice and are treated fairly by our government. He will hold RFK Jr. and President Trump accountable for endangering Americans with disinformation and by dismantling public health agencies including the CDC, FDA and NIH that save American lives. He will demand that science and facts guide federal policies on health care, public health and the environment. Dr. Pan will strive to make the federal government work for the American people.
