Douglas Lee LaMalfa ( ; July 2, 1960 – January 6, 2026) was an American politician and businessman who served as the U.S. representative for California's 1st congressional district from 2013 until his death in 2026. A member of the Republican Party, his district covered nearly all of interior Northern California, including Chico, Redding, and Susanville.
A native of Oroville, LaMalfa was the California state assemblyman for the 2nd district from 2002 to 2008 and California state senator from the 4th district from 2010 to 2012.
Early life, education and business career Douglas Lee LaMalfa was born July 2, 1960, in Oroville, California. LaMalfa graduated from Biggs High School in 1978 and received a bachelor's degree in agricultural business from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in 1982. He was a fourth-generation rice farmer.
California State Assembly Elections In 2002, LaMalfa ran for the California State Assembly in the 2nd district. He won the Republican primary with 59% of the vote, and the general election with 67%. He was reelected in 2004 (68%) and 2006 (68%).
Tenure
LaMalfa worked with Bernie Richter as an early supporter of Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in California. He worked for passage of the Protection of Marriage Act, Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage in California, and after the Supreme Court of California overturned that initiative in In re Marriage Cases, he was an early supporter of, and active in, the Proposition 8 campaign, an initiative that would overturn the court ruling and again ban same-sex marriage. In June 2008, he urged voters to approve Proposition 8, saying "This is an opportunity to take back a little bit of dignity ... for kids, for all of us in California. It really disturbs me that the will of the people was overridden by four members of the Supreme Court."
LaMalfa opposed Mike Feuer's microstamping bill, AB 1471, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law on October 13, 2007.
LaMalfa was a co-author of ACA 20, which would empower law enforcement to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and would have cracked down on illegal immigration.
In 2007, LaMalfa successfully passed AB 1645, a law that would prevent seizures of firearms in the event of an emergency or natural disaster. This was the first pro-gun legislation passed and signed into law in a decade. When he was named the California Rifle and Pistol Association's "Legislator of the Year" for 2007, LaMalfa said, "Receiving this award today from the California Rifle and Pistol Association is a truly humbling honor."
Committee assignments Joint Committee on Legislative Audit Public Safety West Nile virus
California State Senate 2010 election In 2010, LaMalfa ran for the California State Senate in the 4th district. In the Republican primary, he defeated State Assemblyman Rick Keene 58%–42%. In the general election, he defeated Lathe Gill 68%–32%.
Positions In November 2011, LaMalfa opposed a proposed bullet train, saying, "In light of the High Speed Rail plan that was submitted and that the numbers still do not work, California in this dire fiscal crisis that we're in, we're going to introduce legislation to repeal the HSR Authority and the funding for that the state was going to put forward".
LaMalfa opposed a bill that would require history teachers in all California public schools to teach history of homosexuality and gay civil rights. He said that Governor Jerry Brown was "out of touch with what I think are still mainstream American values. That's not the kind of stuff I want my kids learning about in public school. They've really crossed a line into a new frontier."
LaMalfa strongly opposed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would bypass the United States Electoral College, saying, "I think this is dangerous. It flies in the face of 220 years of election law. We have an electoral college; it was put there for a reason."
Committee assignments
Agriculture Budget and Fiscal Review Elections and Constitutional Amendments (Vice Chair) Governance and Finance Natural Resources and Water (Vice Chair) Veterans Affairs Joint Committee on Legislative Audit Joint Committee on Fairs, Allocation, and Classification (Chair) Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture
U.S. House of Representatives Elections 2012
In January 2012, 2nd district congressman Wally Herger announced that he was retiring after 13 terms. Hours after his announcement, Republican consultant Dave Gilliard told Flash Report that Herger had endorsed LaMalfa as his successor. Herger's district was renumbered the 1st in the 2010 round of redistricting. LaMalfa's state senate district was largely coextensive with the western portion of the congressional district.
LaMalfa finished first in the June 2012 Republican primary election with 38% of the vote in an eight-person race, winning 10 of the district's 11 counties.
On November 6, 2012, LaMalfa defeated Democratic Party nominee Jim Reed 57%–43%.
2014
LaMalfa defeated Democratic nominee Heidi Hall in the general election with 61% of the vote.
2016
In the 2016 general election, LaMalfa defeated Democratic nominee Jim Reed with 59.1% of the vote.
2018
There were many candidates in the primary contest, including four candidates expressing preference for the Democratic party, two candidates expressing preference for the Republican party (including LaMalfa), and one candidate expressing preference for the Green Party of the United States. LaMalfa and Audrey Denney (who preferred the Democratic party) were the top two candidates in the primary, earning 51.7% and 17.9% of the vote, respectively.
During the general election, LaMalfa's campaign sent out an attack mailer showing a falsified picture of Denney signing a document endorsing Nancy Pelosi and liberal Democrats. In February 2018, Denney uploaded the original photograph to her campaign website; it showed her signing a promise to oppose campaign contributions from the petroleum industry. LaMalfa's campaign altered the wording on the document in its mailer.
LaMalfa defeated Denney in the November 6 general election, with 54.9% of the 291,594 votes cast to Denney's 45.1%.
2020
LaMalfa defeated Denney in a general-election rematch with 57.0% of the vote to her 43.0%.
2022
LaMalfa defeated Max Steiner, who described himself as a "moderate Democrat", with 62.1% of the 246,225 votes cast to Steiner's 37.9%. During the campaign, Steiner attacked LaMalfa's support for election fraud claims and his vote against certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
In the 2022 race, 63% of LaMalfa's campaign contributions came from inside his state, with 25% coming from inside his district.
2024
LaMalfa defeated Democratic candidate Rose Penelope Yee with 65.3% of the vote.
Committee assignments For the 119th Congress: Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture (Chair) Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
Caucus memberships Congressional Western Caucus Republican Study Committee U.S.–Japan Caucus Congressional Coalition on Adoption
Political positions LaMalfa had a conservative voting record. During the 117th Congress, LaMalfa's voting record was in line with Joe Biden's stated position only 11.6% of the time.
Abortion LaMalfa supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He called Roe v. Wade "partisan" and said it "does not represent the values of our country". LaMalfa voted in favor of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. As of the 118th Congress, LaMalfa was given the rating of A+ by the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Bipartisanship LaMalfa was known for using State of the Union addresses to get one-on-one moments with presidents, regardless of political party, and make requests. After other Republican members of Congress loudly jeered Joe Biden's 2024 State of the Union address, LaMalfa had a three-minute conversation on the House floor with him. He was also known, according to The Washington Post, as an "affable, approachable and pragmatic lawmaker".
Climate change LaMalfa said in 2012: "The climate of the globe has been fluctuating since God created it", and that the Book of Genesis disproves the scientific consensus on climate change, which he called "bad science". In 2017, he said, "I don't buy the idea that man-made activity is responsible." In 2018, amid wildfires, LaMalfa said, "I'm not going to quibble here today about whether it's man, or sunspot activity, or magma causing ice shelves to melt." He suggested the wildfires were due to poor land management by state and federal agencies.
LaMalfa's February 2024 claim that cannot cause climate change—because it is only 0.04% of the atmosphere—was soon fact-checked as false and misleading, given the scientifically known strong effect of even small concentrations of that greenhouse gas on climate.
Donald Trump
During President Donald Trump's first impeachment, LaMalfa voted against impeachment, believing that Trump did not do anything that warranted impeachment, including during his phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and refused to concede, LaMalfa claimed that "the circumstances surrounding this presidential election point to a fraudulent outcome". In December 2020, LaMalfa was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed an amicus curiae brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 election. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion."
On January 7, 2021, following the attack on the U.S. Capitol building by Trump supporters, LaMalfa and six other California representatives voted to reject the certification of Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.
Race After the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, LaMalfa released a statement saying, "Of course it's awful. We've fought and won wars against this hateful ideology, and it has no place in our country."
After the passing of a defense spending bill with a provision aiming to weed out white supremacy from military and federal law enforcement, LaMalfa expressed concerns that it would turn into a witch hunt and that racism would always exist. He also said it is not Congress's job to deal with racism in the government.
In June 2021, LaMalfa was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against legislation to establish Juneteenth, a celebration of the end of slavery, as a federal holiday. The House passed the resolution with a vote of 415–14, while it passed in the Senate 100–0.
Farming
From 1995 to 2016, LaMalfa's own farm received the largest amount of public assistance money from agricultural subsidies (over $1.7 million) in the history of Congress. As a member of the House Agricultural Committee, LaMalfa oversaw farm subsidies, presenting a conflict of interest. In 2017, his spokesman, Parker Williams, said that LaMalfa "voted to end direct farm subsidy payments in the very first farm bill he worked on" and that a new farm bill proposed does not provide subsidies for rice grown in California, a crop that LaMalfa farms. He supported the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest.
LGBT rights