Democrat · California's 3rd District · 2026
Ami Bera
Bera went through California's public schools from childhood through medical school.
Biography
Ami Bera helped pay for medical school with part time work, scholarships, family help and federal student loans.1 The son of Indian immigrants, he attended California's public schools and earned both his science and medical degrees at UC Irvine.1 He and his wife, Janine, who is also a physician, have a daughter and live in Sacramento County.1
After medical school in 1991, Bera completed an internal medicine residency at California Pacific Medical Center and became chief resident.1 He practiced in the Sacramento area and developed a care management strategy for Mercy Healthcare's seven hospital system.1 He later became Sacramento County's chief medical officer, then a clinical professor and associate dean for admissions and outreach at UC Davis.1 His work there included helping student run clinics serve the community.1
He has represented the Sacramento region in Congress since 2013.1 His current assignments include Foreign Affairs and Intelligence, and he is the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific's top Democrat.1 In January 2026, he announced a bipartisan proposal to study access to general surgeons and allow federal designation of shortage areas.2
Bera supports universal health coverage, Medicare drug price negotiations and fewer insurance authorization barriers that delay care.3 He opposes privatizing Social Security and supports leaving reproductive health decisions to patients and their doctors.4 He is running in California's redrawn Third District.5 His November opponent is Robb Tucker.6
Record and controversies
Father's campaign finance conviction
In August 2016, Bera's father, Babulal, received a prison sentence of twelve months and a day for illegal contributions to his son's 2010 and 2012 campaigns, using other people's names and reimbursing their donations.7 Ami Bera denied knowing about the scheme, and his campaign paid $268,726 to the Treasury on the day his father pleaded guilty.8 Prosecutors announced in September 2016 that the investigation was closed and no further charges would be sought; Ami Bera was not charged.9 The FEC dismissed its related complaint against him and his committee in December 2016 as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion, citing the lack of information directly suggesting knowledge before his father's plea, the repayment and expired deadlines for much of the conduct.8