Doug LaMalfa

A member of the Republican Party, his district, formerly the second-largest in the state after the 8th (now largely the 23rd), covers nearly all of interior Northern California, including Chico, Redding, and Susanville.

Douglas Lee LaMalfa (born July 2, 1960) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 1st congressional district since 2013.

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.

LaMalfa is a fourth-generation rice farmer and lifelong Northern California resident.

He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor's degree in agricultural business.

In 2002, LaMalfa ran for the California 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%).

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 California Supreme Court 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.

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, 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."

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."

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%.

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.

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 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."

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.

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%.

LaMalfa defeated Democratic nominee Heidi Hall in the general election with 61% of the vote.

In the 2016 general election, LaMalfa defeated Democratic nominee Jim Reed with 59.1% of the vote.

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%.

LaMalfa defeated Denney in a general-election rematch with 57.0% of the vote to her 43.0%.

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.