Water, wildfires back in spotlight amid sudden death of Calif. House member |
FILE: California Rep. Doug LaMalfa leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2025.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a California congressman since 2013, died during a surgery early Tuesday morning following a medical emergency.
The sudden death of the 65-year-old cuts short what would have likely been the final year of the Republican’s tenure. When voters passed the redistricting measure Prop. 50 in November, LaMalfa’s district changed dramatically, losing a large part of its conservative base. It set up what was expected to be a competitive race in California’s 1st congressional district for LaMalfa this fall.
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The six-term congressman was adamantly against the redistricting effort in California, which was led by Gov. Gavin Newsom in an effort to counteract President Donald Trump’s push for Republicans to gerrymander in Texas. On Tuesday, Trump praised LaMalfa, calling him a “fierce champion on California water issues” and a “true defender of American children” during an early morning speech.
“You know, he voted with me 100% of the time. And by the way, he wasn’t a 3 o’ clock in the morning person,” the president said, joking about late-night phone calls with members of Congress whom he had to cajole into votes. “ ... With, Doug I never had to call. He was with us right from the beginning.”
Before redistricting, California’s 1st District had some more liberal pockets, like the university city of Chico, but it was generally viewed as ultra-conservative, as it encompassed a large section of the northeastern part of the state. It is not very populous, with just under 800,000 residents in 2023 –– less than the city of San Francisco –– and it has one of the lowest median household incomes out of any congressional district in the country. It is famously known for its farms that grow crops like rice, almonds, beans and tomatoes, but it also includes some of California’s most famous public lands, including parts of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and Lassen Volcanic National Park.
The north state district is, in many ways, the........