Kevin Kiley’s constituents demand answers, but the Rocklin congressman is MIA | Opinion
If Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley of Rocklin were to visit the home of his constituents, Frances and Jon Pimentel, he would meet their youngest daughter Violet, who lives with a rare genetic disorder: Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency. It complicates Violet’s ability to digest carbohydrates and convert them to energy — and carries a prognosis of a 90% death rate for children before the age of four.
If Kiley met 3-year-old Violet she would probably try to climb up into his lap and stare at him with deep blue eyes worthy of her name, before sweetly nuzzling her head with its soft brown curls into his neck.
If Kiley were to visit the Pimentels at their home in Folsom, he would see Violet’s impossibly small, pink wheelchair by the front door. He would see the toddler’s pink sparkly shoes with ankle bracers laying nearby, and see Frances feeding her daughter through a syringe into a port in the little girl’s stomach four times a day. She would likely tell him about how the only treatment for Violet’s disorder is a ketogenic, completely carbohydrate-free diet, made from scratch and blended.
The Republican congressman would hear about how Frances gave up a promising career in product design to provide daily care for the little girl, a move made possible by California’s In-Home Supportive Services — a program supported by federal funding.
If Kiley were to visit the Pimentels, he would see that they are the picture of middle-class Americana in 2025: A nice family living in a nice home with nice children. He would hear that Violet’s diagnosis was a shock to her parents — PDCD isn’t commonly tested for in pregnant women. It wasn’t until Violet started missing milestones that her parents began to engage doctors, and it was an excruciating eight months with a rapidly deteriorating infant at home before they got an answer.
Kiley would hear that the family has excellent private insurance through Jon’s job as an engineer. Yet, they still often have to rely on MediCal and MediCare to subsidize Violet’s physical, speech, occupational, vision and feeding therapies, which have helped the little girl begin to walk and talk.
He would see that Violet’s mother is terrified of the votes he’s made in Congress that will hurt her daughter’s life. Kiley, along with every other California Republican in the House, voted for deep spending cuts, including $4.5 trillion in tax breaks (mostly for the wealthy) and $2 trillion in spending cuts. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare, must now find $880 billion in spending cuts. Experts doubt they could find that much in cuts without including Medicaid, Medicare or both.
The resolution has caused chaos as voters worry about what these cuts mean for the future of their healthcare. A recent poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 77 percent of Americans and 84 percent of Medicaid recipients are in favor of the program; additionally, Medicaid is used by 1 in 5 Americans, and accounts for nearly $1 out of every $5 spent on health care.
California Republicans have also bandied about the end of funding to the IDEA ACT — Individuals with Disabilities Education — which should fund up to 40% of disabled students’ Individualized Education Programs, and a program that children like Violet rely heavily on when they enter the school system.
“I want Kevin Kiley to meet her face-to-face and tell us why he won’t support these programs,” Frances Pimentel said, holding Violet in her arms. She has not participated in any of the recent protests, but has been calling his office and messaging his social media accounts regularly, looking for answers. “Kevin Kiley’s own mother was a special education teacher, but last week, one of his staffers hung up on me in the middle of supposedly taking down my questions.”
But Kiley won’t visit the Pimentels, even though they’ve extended him many invitations. Based on his social media accounts, Kiley seems more focused on being a partisan ideologue than meeting his constituents. It’s not an exaggeration to say Kiley’s actions could bring an end to the life-saving programs that Violet, her family and people like them all across California rely on. At the very least, Kiley is on the side of politicians causing strife in the lives of citizens like the Pimentel’s.
For all his intelligence and academic achievement - Kiley was a star student at Granite Bay High School, went to Harvard and law school at Yale - he seems emotionally disconnected from the truths guiding the lives less fortunate than him.
Just because someone is profoundly disabled, that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the right to life. It is our responsibility as a community to care for them. That means fully funding programs like MediCare and MediCal, budget slashing be damned.
Kiley constituents demand meetings
The day before I visited the Pimentels at their home, a hundred or so of Kiley’s constituents gathered on the sidewalk near his Rocklin office with protest signs. They politely filed, a few at a time, through the long commercial parking lot to the far end where Kiley’s office was located, they signed the guest book and left a letter for their congressman.
On Monday, March 10, an estimated 350-400 Kiley residents showed up to his office at the Nevada County Government Center in Truckee, requesting the congressman’s appearance at a Town Hall meeting to answer their concerns. Once again, Kiley abandoned his staff to the flood of visitors. They could only listen and urge the visitors to write their congressman a letter.
Michael Rauber, Kiley’s communications director, responded to a request for comment by email, claiming that the office has “experimented with different ways to make it easy for constituents to participate in town halls and have found that, by a wide margin, they prefer teletown halls,” according to an internal survey, “by a margin of 91% to 9%.” Rauber did not respond to questions about how or when that survey was conducted.
Kiley’s district — the 3rd congressional — is indeed the largest in the state. It spans 450 miles from Lassen National Forest in the north, along most of the California-Nevada border, all the way south to Death Valley. It includes all or parts of nine counties: Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, Alpine, Mono, Yuba, El Dorado, and Sacramento; and is home to more than 760,000 people. But that does not relieve the congressman of his duties to the public.
Can Kiley not understand their frustration? Calls are hung up on, letters and emails go unanswered. Until recently, Kiley’s website showed no upcoming tele-town halls, and the only two public events he has listed happened last August.
The people are demanding answers, but the congressman is missing in action.
Violet deserves better
Kiley won’t visit the Pimentels. He’ll never see the struggle his flippant, virtue-signaling votes will create for them and other families like theirs. On Wednesday, the congressman finally announced he would host a virtual town hall on March 17 at 6:30 p.m., in response to constituent demands.
But the people of the 3rd District didn’t elect a virtual representative. If Kiley can’t sit face-to-face with the people who voted him in, then he’s no congressman — he’s just a coward.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 1:27 PM.
CORRECTION: The spelling of Frances Pimentel’s name has been corrected in the captions for this story.
