Rep. Doug LaMalfa has died, House Republican leadership announced Tuesday morning. The California lawmaker was 65.<\/p>\n
LaMalfa, one of only nine Republican lawmakers from his home state, had served in the House since 2013, representing a conservative farming district in the northernmost part of California. His unexpected death narrows the Republicans\u2019 majority in the House to 218 seats, the minimum number needed to achieve a simple majority.<\/p>\n
The cause of his death was unclear. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoug was a loving father and husband, and staunch advocate for his constituents and rural America. Our prayers are with Doug\u2019s wife, Jill, and their children,\u201d Republican Whip Rep. Tom Emmer\u00a0wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n LaMalfa\u2019s California district, formerly a safe Republican seat, was redrawn ahead of the midterm elections by Democratic California officials in a move\u00a0approved<\/a>\u00a0by California voters in November,\u00a0a direct response<\/a>\u00a0to President Donald Trump\u2019s midyear redistricting efforts in Texas.<\/p>\n LaMalfa, a fourth-generation rice farmer, was a conservative Republican who often spoke candidly to reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cDoug was a principled conservative and a tireless advocate for the people of Northern California. He was never afraid to fight for rural communities,\u201d Rep. Richard Hudson,who served with LaMalfa in the House Committee on Agriculture,\u00a0<\/strong>wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n LaMalfa\u2019s death marks the latest narrowing in Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s Republican conference. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned Monday. Other House Republicans are also\u00a0considering retiring from a Congress<\/a>\u00a0increasingly considered toxic by senior lawmakers.<\/p>\n LaMalfa would often speak on the House floor to advocate for rolling back environmental regulations in California to secure better water access for farmers in his district. <\/p>\n LaMalfa was known for staying on the House floor after presidential addresses to speak with presidents of both parties. Last year, during Trump\u2019s first address to Congress in his second term, he pulled the president aside to ask for his help with \u201ca water deal,\u201d he told NOTUS at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was great on water. \u2018Release the water,\u2019 he would scream out. And a true defender of American children, he was a defender of everybody. And our hearts go out to his wife, Jill, and his entire family. You know, he voted with me 100% of the time,\u201d Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS <\/a>\u2014 a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute \u2014 and NEWSWELL<\/a>, home of Times of San Diego<\/a>, Santa Barbara News-Press<\/a> and Stocktonia<\/a>.<\/p>\n READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Doug LaMalfa has died, House Republican leadership announced Tuesday morning. The California lawmaker was 65. LaMalfa, one…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":496898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,223430,276,327,23934,80,1054,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-496897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-ca-gop","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-congress","13":"tag-notus","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-republican-party","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115849164472986682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}