The District One congressional candidate talks about policies and politics
By Ken Magri
Editor’s note: James Gallagher, along with Audrey Denney and Mike McGuire, is running for Congressional Dist. 1 in both the short-term vacancy (the orange ballot packet), and the full term (the purple ballot packet) elections. Chico News & Review interviewed candidate Kyle Wilson in February, but he has since dropped out of the race.
Assemblyman James Gallagher is the fourth in News & Review’s series of interviews with District One congressional candidates. In 2008 he was elected to the Sutter County Board of Supervisors. Gallagher was elected to the California State Assembly in 2014 and served as the Republican Minority Leader from 2022-2025.
Born in Yuba City and raised in East Nicolaus, Gallagher is a sixth-generation rice and walnut farmer who met his wife when they were kindergarteners together in Rio Oso.
Gallagher says he is proud of his record in the Assembly, protecting the region’s farmers in the tradition of the late US Representative Doug LaMalfa, who he viewed as a mentor and referenced several times during the interview. Gallagher agreed that he generally aligns his positions with LaMalfa’s policies.
Gallagher blames high prices on the Democratic majority in Sacramento and Governor Newsom rather than Congress or the Trump Administration. “The Iran war is definitely an issue,” says Gallagher. “We need to ultimately resolve the Strait of Hormuz, a big priority of our president right now. But let’s not kid ourselves. The high gas prices in California are a result of California policy.”
On affordability, housing and wildfire mitigation Gallagher often blamed what he called the “Democrat super-majority” and one of his campaign rivals, State Senator Mike McGuire, for preventing the legislature from enacting policies he favors.
As with our previous interviews of candidates McGuire, Audrey Denney and Kyle Wilson, we began by asking Assemblyman Gallagher to comment on a current news event.
CN&R: Is there a news event happening right now that you would like to comment on?
Gallagher: Rural health care is something that’s been on my mind. We’re trying to put some money together for distressed hospitals. Doug LaMalfa, before he passed, was able to get Glenn Medical Center restored with their critical access designation. He was working with Senator Schiff on getting funding and that’s still ongoing.
I’ve always had a background of being able to work across party lines to get things done for the district. There was a distressed hospital loan that passed a couple years ago in the legislature, to get money for Glenn and Orchard Hospital in Gridley; weren’t able to get it. Coincidentally, my opponent Mike McGuire was the head of the super-majority at the time and not one hospital in the congressional district got any money.
CN&R: District One farm crops are as diverse as vineyards in the west and almonds, walnuts and orchard crops in the North Valley. Why should a farmer in this congressional district support you?
Gallagher: I am a farmer, so I know the trials and travails of running a farm in California. I worked with Congressman [Mike] Thompson to get $9 million for peach growers in the region who lost their contracts when Del Monte went bankrupt. We need to really get strong on trade, negotiate better trade agreements with India and Japan that would help our farmers in the district. I’m thinking of rice, walnuts and almonds. But we also have to get tough on cheap foreign imports that don’t meet our labor standards or food safety standards.
We could impose heavy duties, and the same thing goes for canned peaches and that hurts our American growers. We could also get more locally grown food into our schools and universities, so that’s another effort we’re working on.
CN&R: Wildfire mitigation is a big concern in District One and across California, what can be done to better prevent wildfires?
Gallagher: I’ve been the biggest champion of wildfire prevention funding and policy in the legislature. In 2021 I held hearings on the Capitol steps on wildfire prevention because they wouldn’t hear our bills in committee under the Democratic controlled leadership.
We need to get it back up to a billion dollars. That should be baseline funding. We also need to remove the bureaucratic barriers to doing more of this work and increasing the pace and scale.
What CalFire does, what the fire safe councils do, we can do with private hand crews as well. If we can utilize all of that, we can get a lot of work done. But we need the funding and you need to streamline the overly complicated environmental regulations. This is a number one priority for me.
CN&R: Is affordable housing even achievable anymore? If so, what can a congressmember do?
Gallagher: Well, here again, myself and Congressman LaMalfa did a lot of work in this area in the aftermath of the [2018] Camp Fire. We secured tax credit money and CDBGDR [Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief] funding. We ended up building thousands of new affordable units in Chico, Paradise and Oroville. I’m really proud of that work.
I passed one of the first California Environmental Quality Act [CEQUA] reforms for housing in 2019. And we need to streamline processes by reducing permitting costs. Chico, for example, is poised to build a lot of new housing if we remove the barriers.
CN&R: Are you referring to Valley’s Edge?
Gallagher: I mean, that’s one project, right? We can do a lot of in-fill as well. But again, you have to remove those barriers that get in the way of building the project. Affordable housing is a defined thing. You’re never going to get there unless you reduce the input costs that go into market housing.
CN&R: The LGBTQ+ community is sick of being picked on by Trump and used as a wedge issue in every election. Why should an LGBTQ+ member or supporter vote for you?
Gallagher: I don’t think Trump is picking on them. Why should they trust me? Because I believe that everyone should be treated equally. Boys shouldn’t be playing girls’ sports, and I think most reasonable people think the same thing. They can count on me to be treated equally, and I believe everyone should be treated equally under the law.
CN&R: Democrats’ approval rating in the House of Representatives is in the low 30 percentile, almost as low as Republicans, yet polls continue to show voters want a Democratic majority. What do you make of these numbers?
Gallagher: Traditionally the party in power always loses seats in Congress in the next election. So, nothing is out of the ordinary about that, right? But if people talk about California, who’s been in charge? We have a super-majority in every state office represented by Democrats…
CN&R: With all due respect, I asked about the US House of Representatives, not California statewide office holders, so we’d like to print your response regarding Congress.
Gallagher: Sure, but you’re asking why they have a low approval rating. Because Democrats are bad at governing, that’s why. Why is there a majority saying there should be a Democratic majority? Because usually the public wants balance. So, if there’s one party that controls, usually the next election they choose the other party. That’s been the historical trend for a hundred years.
CN&R: What is the last thing you want voters to know about you?
Gallagher: That I am somebody that fights for my people. In every single election I’ve run in, I get votes from Democrats along with Republicans and Independents. People come up to me all the time and say, ‘Hey, I’m from a different party, but I love what you do because you’re looking out for us.’
That’s been the case coming out of the Camp Fire and helping our communities recover. It’s been the case when I held PG&E to account. We got 100% tax relief, both at the state and federal level, for wildfire victim settlement payments.
I think people are going to be able to see through party and all the BS and focus on who’s actually looking out for them.
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