In 3rd Assembly District election, voters need results, not partisan noise | Opinion

California’s 3rd Assembly District is a mixture of urban and rural communities that reflects challenges facing the state.. Whoever represents this district must be responsive to complex issues that citizens and voters live with every day north of Sacramento.

We believe this election has two worthy candidates, but we endorse Andrew Coolidge, the former mayor of Chico, in a close call.

The 3rd Assembly District is home to cities such as Chico, Oroville, Yuba City and Red Bluff, and encompasses all of Butte, Tehama, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba counties. It is currently represented by James Gallagher, Republican minority leader of the California Assembly.

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This district is grappling with the rural health care crisis, as hospitals close and residents are forced to travel to Sacramento for care. It is the natural watershed of the State Water Project, and locals depend on it for flood protection and recreation. It is also one of the state’s most fire-ravaged regions, making it an epicenter of the twin insurance and electricity crises.

Gallagher is term limited, and he’s now campaigning to replace the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa in a congressional seat that includes much of the 3rd District. Who will be the new leader who can give this region the representation it deserves?

The Sacramento Bee’s Editorial Board spoke with the top two candidates, both Republicans, for this office: Coolidge and Jamie Johansson, a former president of the California Farm Bureau and one-time vice mayor of Oroville. (A third candidate, Dom Belza, also a Republican, did not return a request to participate.)

Coolidge and Johansson are solid candidates, and it proved to be a tough choice arrived after multiple board conversations. Both men are well-informed about their communities, and each possesses a clear grasp of the needs of the region and the policies that affect voters’ daily lives. Each provided us with sound answers to some of the biggest issues facing the region.

However, Coolidge edges out Johansson with his bipartisan approach to governance and prior experience as mayor of the district’s largest city.

In particular, we were impressed by Coolidge’s responses to the rural health care crisis, in which he emphasized the lack of psychiatric care and resources in the district, and cited clear, direct examples of his leadership.

The Healthy Rural California program, a local effort that Coolidge advocated for as mayor of Chico, successfully started a local residency program at the region’s largest hospitals with a goal of bringing 24 new doctors into the region.

Coolidge also correctly identified that the financial struggles faced by rural hospitals often stem from low Medicare reimbursement rates and federal requirements, and he further criticized the state for allocating such a low percentage of funds toward general practice medicine. This drives practitioners away from general medicine and contributes to the lack of access and overburdened emergency rooms, he said.

“This isn’t just a minor crisis here, this is an everyday crisis; to the point that folks in our district don’t even understand how much of an impact it is making on their lives,” Coolidge said.

“A lot of those federal requirements need to be pushed off and we need to make sure that these local hospitals actually get funding for treating folks. Some of my Republican colleagues would disagree with me on this one in a big way, but I think that had a massive impact on our hospitals. You can see it reverberating throughout our communities.”

The north state is fortunate to have two qualified candidates running to represent it in the California Assembly. Coolidge could be a fine representative if he can make good on his word and avoid Sacramento’s trap of hyper-partisanship.

This story was originally published April 7, 2026 at 5:00 AM.