Tributes pour in for Rep. Doug LaMalfa of Northern California, whose sudden death further narrows GOP hold on Congress ...Middle East

Figures from across the nation and political spectrum expressed shock and sorrow Tuesday over the sudden death of Congressman Doug LaMalfa, the Butte County Republican who’d represented California’s 1st Congressional District since 2013.

“He was with us right from the beginning,” said President Donald Trump of LaMalfa, a reliable MAGA ally whose death leaves the GOP with a tenuous 218-213 margin in the U.S. House of Representatives.

RELATED: Doug LaMalfa died after 911 call from his home; fourth death in current Congress

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that flags at the Capitol would fly at half-staff.

“While we often approached issues from different perspectives,” said Newsom of LaMalfa in a statement, “he fought every day for the people of California with conviction and care. He will be deeply missed.”

A fourth-generation rice farmer from Richvale, LaMalfa, 65, suffered an aneurysm, then a heart attack after being taken into emergency surgery, according Politico. He died during the surgery about 3:20 a.m. Tuesday, according to Kory Honea, the Butte County sheriff/coroner.

It was LaMalfa, along with Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who carried legislation in the House to exempt victims of wildfires ignited by utilities from paying federal taxes on compensation for their losses. That legislation, which passed in 2024 after a 2 ½ year slog, was particularly meaningful to constituents in his fire-scarred district, which includes Paradise, and wildfire survivors in the North Bay.

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He died halfway through his seventh term in Congress, having cruised to victory in those races. But LaMalfa faced a far steeper climb to win an eighth term following the passage this past November of Proposition 50, which redrew California’s congressional districts to create five new Democratic seats.

That reconfigured map, Newsom’s response to a gerrymander engineered at Trump’s behest by the Texas Legislature, transformed LaMalfa’s 1st District from a safe Republican seat into one favoring Democrats – and one Democrat in particular.

Mike McGuire, the state senator from Healdsburg who until November served as that body’s highest ranking member, terms out office at the end of this year. He announced Nov. 13 his intention to run for LaMalfa’s District 1 seat.

“Erika and I extend our deepest condolences to Doug LaMalfa’s family, friends, and colleagues,” McGuire said Tuesday in a statement, steering clear of all political talk for the moment.

“Public service is a noble calling, regardless of party, and Congressman LaMalfa’s dedication to serving the people of California deserves recognition, respect and gratitude.

Our prayers are with his family and the communities he has proudly served.”

Newsom has 14 days to set a date for a special election, to be contested in the current, bright red, pre-Prop 50 lines, not the redrawn ones, with the winner serving out the remainder of LaMalfa’s term.

The June primary election to determine who runs in November to claim the seat representing the redrawn district, meanwhile, is also set to include another well-known Democrat in the district, Audrey Denney, a Chico-based educator and non-profit leader who has twice lost to LaMalfa.

In October, Denney announced her plans to oppose him again, and was then endorsed by Emily’s List, a political action committee that works to elect Democratic, pro-choice women. She also steered clear of any talk of her political plans Tuesday.

“My thoughts are with Congressman LaMalfa’s wife, Jill, their children, and their entire family today,” Denney said Tuesday in a post on X.

“I appreciate his willingness to serve the communities of the North State for decades.”

Denney’s campaign did not respond to the Press Democrat’s requests for comment.

Kyle Wilson, a Santa Rosa labor lawyer who aligns himself with progressive, democratic-socialist candidates such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, filed paperwork for his campaign in June.

Wilson said in a text that while he and LaMalfa often disagreed on policy, “he represented this region for many years and was deeply rooted in Northern California.

“In the days ahead, I hope we can come together to ensure the people of this district continue to have strong, thoughtful representation that meets the challenges families are facing.”

Echoing McGuire, Wilson said it was “too early to speculate about the potential implications of a special election in the old district.”

It wasn’t too early for David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University.

The strongest candidate Republicans might put forward for the special election, McCuan speculated, would be James Gallagher from Yuba City, who until recently was the minority leader of the California Assembly.

Entering that race might make sense for Gallagher, “because he’s termed out” of the Assembly, “and he hasn’t indicated what he wants to do next.”

Gallagher, who didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday afternoon, also represents a district that includes Paradise. He worked closely with McGuire “on fire recovery and fire resilience” in the wake of the catastrophic 2019 Camp Fire.

Since then, said McCuan, Gallagher “has gone full MAGA,” and been a virulent critic of both McGuire and Newsom.

McCuan questioned whether it would make much sense for McGuire to enter the special election for the remaining months of LaMalfa’s term, expending resources on a race that will be contested in the old, right-leaning district, in which he would be a pronounced underdog.

“The x-factor,” said McCuan, is Denney, who “has a better shot” in the special election, he believes, than she will against fellow Democrat McGuire in the June primary leading up to the November runoff.

Denney’s two loses against LaMalfa were by 9.8 points in 2018, and 14 points in 2020 — in a district where the Republican was accustomed to ringing up far wider margins of victory.

A third loss, in the special election, would likely damage Denney’s chances in the June primary, said McCuan.

LaMalfa first entered politics in 2002, winning a seat in the state Assembly with 67% of the vote, kicking off a 24-year career in which he never lost an election.

In a release emailed to media just after 7:30 a.m., Mark Spannagel, LaMalfa’s chief of staff, said “Early this morning Congressman Doug LaMalfa returned home to the Lord.  He leaves a lasting legacy of servant leadership kindness to the North State. His humor and work effort are legendary — with one reporter once saying he’d look in the back yard of every BBQ just to see if Doug was there visiting.”

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who sparred with LaMalfa especially over natural resource and climate policy, expressed sympathy Tuesday following reports of his death.

“This is incredibly shocking and sad,” said Huffman in a statement. “Doug and I served together for almost two decades in Congress and the State Assembly and were able to accomplish a lot for Northern California. Although we had profound differences, I always admired his dedication to his family and community.”

During a congressional hearing in 2023, in an exchange with then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, LaMalfa repeatedly cast doubt on the existence of climate change, prompting Huffman to remark, “You can see that I serve here in Congress with some of the greatest minds of the 19th century.”

Later that day, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, members of LaMalfa’s staff entered Huffman’s office wearing raccoon-skin hats, and dropped off a “makeshift scroll addressed to a member of Huffman’s staff,” informing him that LaMalfa would no longer be working with him on a measure to remediate toxic marijuana growth on National Forest System lands.

“I appreciated his sense of humor,” said Huffman in the statement, “and despite our differences, we were able to remind each other that it wasn’t personal. This is a big loss, and my heart goes out to all who love him.”

This story includes reporting by the Chico Enterprise-Record.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at [email protected] or on Twitter @ausmurph88.

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