In 2002, LaMalfa ran for the California Assembly in the 2nd District. He won the Republican primary with 59% of the vote,[5] and the general election with 67%.[6] He was reelected in 2004 (68%)[7] and 2006 (68%).[8]
Tenure
LaMalfa being presented the True Blue award by FRC President Tony Perkins
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.[9][10] 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."[11]
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.[13]
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."[14]
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%.[18] In the general election, he defeated Lathe Gill 68%–32%.[19]
Tenure
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".[20]
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."[21]
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."[22]
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)
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.[24] 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.[25]
On November 6, 2012, LaMalfa defeated Democratic Party nominee Jim Reed 57%–43%.[26]
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.[29]
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.[30]
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 Max Steiner, who described himself as a "moderate Democrat", with 62.1% of the 246,225 votes cast to Steiner's 37.9%.[31][32] 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.[33]
In the 2022 race, 63% of LaMalfa's campaign contributions came from inside his state, with 25% coming from inside his district.[34]
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."[40]
Climate change
Public statements made by LaMalfa have demonstrated a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of climate change. In a back and forth with Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, LaMalfa conflated the climate with the seasons. “This one called is autumn, sir”, he said in response to Buttigieg saying that we are already experiencing the effects of the climate changing.[41]
LaMalfa has said, "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 has called "bad science".[42][43] 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.[44]
LaMalfa's February 2024 claim that CO2 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.[45][46]
On January 7, 2021, following the storming of 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.[55]
Race
After the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, LaMalfa stayed silent on the matter for five days until finally expressing disappointment upon being questioned on the incident.[56]
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 it would turn into a witch hunt and that racism will always exist.[57] He also claimed it is not Congress's job to deal with racism in the government.[57]
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.[58]
Joe Biden
As of October 2021, LaMalfa had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 9.3% of the time.[59]
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 oversees 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.[60][failed verification] He supported the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest.[61]
LGBT rights
LaMalfa opposes same-sex marriage and has said that legalizing it would "open the floodgates" for polygamy to be legalized. He has said that marriage is "an institution created by God and supposed to be held up and respected by men and women."[62] He endorsed the First Amendment Defense Act, which, among other things, sought to criminalize same-sex intercourse.[63] In 2015, LaMalfa co-sponsored a resolution to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.[64] On July 19, 2022, he voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would protect the right to same-sex marriage at a federal level.[65][66]
Voter fraud
LaMalfa has said, "California is just a sieve on its voter security." Speaking about his own district, he said, "There's a percentage of illegal votes, probably in every district. Is it high here? Probably not. We don't really have the demographics that would be a really big push of that."[67]
Taxes
LaMalfa voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[68] According to him, the bill will enable his constituents to save more money and give them tax relief. He said that the bill will give a "booster shot to the U.S. economy", enable businesses to hire more workers, and cause more products to be made in the USA, especially in Redding.[69]
Colleagues
In November 2021, after Representative Paul Gosar shared an animated video of himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden, LaMalfa voted against Gosar's censure.[70]
Defense
In September 2021, LaMalfa was among 75 House Republicans to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which contains a provision that would require women to be drafted.[71][72]
Crime
LaMalfa has expressed support for prosecuting minors charged with felonies as adults and has supported the construction of additional juvenile detention centers.[73]
Education
LaMalfa supports posting the Ten Commandments in public schools.[74] In 2013, he co-sponsored the Abstinence Education Reallocation Act, which sought to teach abstinence in public schools.[75]
Immigration
LaMalfa sponsored H.R. 6202, the American Tech Workforce Act of 2021, introduced by Representative Jim Banks. The legislation would establish a wage floor for the high-skill H-1B visa program, thereby significantly reducing employer dependence on the program. The bill would also eliminate the Optional Practical Training program that allows foreign graduates to stay and work in the United States.[76]
Ukraine
In August 2023 Doug LaMalfa was the sole California Republican to vote in favor of Amendment 22 of H.R. 2670 to prohibit all security assistance to Ukraine.[77] Additionally LaMalfa was the only California Republican to vote for Amendment 21 to cancel $300 million of assistance for Ukraine.[78]
LaMalfa is married to Jill LaMalfa. They have four children. LaMalfa commutes weekly from California to Washington, D.C.[47] He is an owner and manager of the DSL LaMalfa Family Partnership, which owns and operates the family rice farm in Richvale, California.[60][90] LaMalfa employs a farm manager who runs the farm while he is in Washington.[47]
LaMalfa has donated over $100,000 to his own campaigns and other Republican Party causes and candidates.[91] As of 2018, he has a net worth of nearly $3.5 million.[92]
LaMalfa is a Christian.[93]
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