This year’s midterm election already was going to be frustrating for many voters in a vast, rural swath of Northern California whose staunchly conservative district has been redrawn to favor Democrats after the passage of Proposition 50 last fall.
Their longtime Republican congressman, Doug LaMalfa, a rice farmer from rural Butte County who had represented the region for 13 years, had vowed to run again in his newly configured district, despite the long odds.
But LaMalfa died during emergency surgery on Jan. 5.
Now, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — a vociferous critic of President Trump who is weighing a 2028 presidential run — has chosen the latest day possible under state law for a special election to fill LaMalfa’s seat for the last few months of his term.
In a Jan. 16 proclamation, Newsom set the special election for Aug. 4.
The victor will represent California’s 1st Congressional District with its current boundaries, which stretch from the northern outskirts of Sacramento, through Redding to the Oregon border and to Alturas in the state’s northeast corner.
On June 2, voters will simultaneously cast ballots in the primary for the special election in the current district — and in the statewide primary for the November election for the new districts.
If the winner of the special election primary gets more than 50% of the vote in the primary, he or she will win outright, serving the rest of LaMalfa’s term, which ends Jan. 3, 2027.
“Voters will certainly be confused about the shifting district lines in two elections so close together in time,” Kim Nalder, director of the Project for an Informed Electorate at Sacramento State, said in an email.
She added that the special election is likely to get “fairly low turnout,” with those who do cast ballots being “better informed and more partisan.”
LaMalfa’s death put the razor-thin Republican majority in Congress in further jeopardy, with a margin of just two votes to secure passage of any bill along party lines after the resignation of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene this month.
In California, several Republican-held seats, including LaMalfa’s, were imperiled in the fall when voters passed Proposition 50, which temporarily redraws the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats. The proposition was a response to partisan redistricting in Republican states including Texas.
State law required Newsom to announce a special election for the remainder of LaMalfa’s term within 14 days of his death. The election had to be conducted within 140 days — or up to 200 days if consolidated with another election.
The governor’s office said that consolidating the special and state primaries was meant to reduce the risk of voter confusion since there are multiple elections with different boundaries.
But Newsom’s decision to leave LaMalfa’s seat vacant as long as possible has infuriated California Republicans. They say Proposition 50 has already disenfranchised voters in a region that has, for nearly a century, talked seriously about seceding to form their own state called Jefferson.
In a Jan. 16 letter to Newsom, the California Assembly Republican Caucus said the state’s rural residents “already suffer from a severe lack of meaningful representation in both Sacramento and Washington D.C.”
They added: “When a congressional seat representing one of the largest and most rural districts in the state is left vacant, it sends a clear message: OUR VOICES ARE NOT A PRIORITY.”
The lawmakers said the unfilled seat has “real consequences for communities that depend on federal advocacy for wildfire recovery, water access, agriculture, healthcare, and basic infrastructure.”
Nadler, at Sacramento State, said it appears Newsom is “continuing to use every tool at his disposal to enable his party to gain advantages in the House” and that the governor “understands the assignment in this new political era.”
Matt Rexroad, a California Republican political consultant and redistricting expert, said of Newsom’s choice to set the special election for August: “There’s no doubt at all that it’s politically driven.”
“He did Prop. 50 to stick it to President Trump and is attempting to deny House Speaker [Mike] Johnson another Republican vote for the rest of the year,” Rexroad said. “All of this is about Governor Newsom positioning himself to run for president.”
Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Yuba City Republican who is running to complete LaMalfa’s term, has said the governor could have called the special election for June 2, with a primary on March 31. Instead, he wrote in a statement last week, the governor “chose to play national political games” and will deny Northern California voters representation “for at least two months longer than what was needed.”
Gallagher announced his candidacy last week with an endorsement from LaMalfa’s widow, Jill, who wrote that “in the midst of our sadness and navigation of such a profound loss, I find myself very concerned about who may replace Doug as our Representative in Washington, D.C.”
“The kids and I believe this is what Doug would have wanted,” she wrote of Gallagher’s candidacy, adding: “James has our full support.”
In an interview Friday, Gallagher, the former Assembly Republican leader, said he was still reeling from the death of LaMalfa, whom he considered a mentor and close friend.
Gallagher said his motto for this election is: Unite the North State.
Because of Proposition 50, the current, deep-red district will be cleaved into three pieces. The northern half will be joined to a coastal district that will stretch all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, while the southern half will be chopped into two districts that will draw in voters from the Bay Area and wine country.
“Prop. 50 was a big gut punch for us,” Gallagher said. “A lot of people felt like their representation was getting ripped away from them for political reasons — then you lose the guy who’s been your rock for many years. … It is a very difficult time.”
Gallagher will compete in the special election against Democrat Audrey Denney, an education director who unsuccessfully challenged LaMalfa in 2018 and 2020.
Denney will run in both the special election and in the election for the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District. State Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents the state’s northwest coast, is among her competitors vying to represent the new district.
Gallagher told The Times on Friday that he had not decided whether he would run for a full term in a new district, “but I would say I’m considering it.”
A funeral service for LaMalfa is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico.
LaMalfa’s staff said attendees will include Johnson, numerous members of Congress and Newsom.