Read the profile here and see excerpts below.

A former high school English teacher, Mr. Kiley was elected to his seat in 2022. Before that, he served in the California Legislature, where he was a fierce critic of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He leveraged his opposition to the governor and ran against him during an ill-fated attempt to recall him in 2021.

In an interview with The New York Times before the recall election, Mr. Kiley said he was connecting with voters across the political spectrum for his focus on quality-of-life issues: housing affordability, homelessness, crime and underperforming schools. “There’s certainly a coalition out there that is seeking a new direction for the state,” he said.

During the antisemitism hearings, Mr. Kiley has distinguished himself for his tough questioning of administrators. He has said he believes schools and universities have responded inadequately to threats reported by Jewish students.

At a hearing with public school district leaders on May 8, he pressed the superintendent in Berkeley, Calif., on whether the district had fired any employees for antisemitic conduct. She declined to answer.

And at a December that precipitated the ousters of two Ivy League presidents, Mr. Kiley declared, “We need fundamental cultural change for the university campuses.”