The Bee endorses a native of California’s new 1st Congressional District | Opinion

California’s 1st Congressional District in Northern California has changed… a lot.

It will no longer be safely Republican thanks to Proposition 50, which redrew California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats with the approval of state voters last November.

You could say the California 1st District was one of the main targets of the state’s mid-decade redistricting effort led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sold it to voters as protection against President Donald Trump’s efforts to gerrymander red state districts in order to preserve a slim GOP majority in the House of Representatives.

As currently drawn, the 1st District runs from the Oregon-California border and through Sutter County before stopping just north of the Sacramento International Airport. But thanks to Prop. 50 and starting in January, the new 1st District will stretch west through Sonoma County. It will still include Red Bluff and Chico, but not Redding, Yuba City, Colusa or Live Oak.

The district will also include wine region cities such as Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, which is also the hometown of California state Senator Mike McGuire.

The former Democratic leader of the Senate is running in two races for the 1st District: a special election to complete the term of Doug LaMalfa, who represented the old 1st District before dying in January. McGuire is also running for a full term in the new 1st District.

McGuire earns our endorsement for the full term because he understands the needs of communities he served as a Sonoma County Supervisor before being elected to the Legislature. We also endorse McGuire in the special election because we like his experience and knowledge. In addition, McGuire’s primary opponent, Assemblymember James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, would not meet with us and by policy we don’t endorse candidates who won’t meet with us.

It is likely that Gallagher could prevail in the special election because Republican voters outnumber Democrats as the district is currently drawn. If no candidate in the special election exceeds 50% of the vote, there would be a runoff election on Aug. 4. The winner would only serve a few months until LaMalfa’s term ends on Jan. 3.

For the full congressional term in the redrawn 1st District, the math changes considerably.

Redistricting expert and Democratic data analyst Paul Mitchell, who helped create the new districts, said the new 1st District has moved a whopping 37 points in favor of Democratic registration.

“Donald Trump won the old district by 25 points,” Mitchell said in a text, “and Kamala Harris won the new district by 12.”

Our endorsement interview consisted of the top two Democratic candidates in the race, McGuire and Audrey Denney, an educator and community advocate who unsuccessfully ran for the old 1st District in 2018 and 2020. Denney has raised nearly $330,000 for her campaign, and McGuire has raised more than $450,000.

(Other candidates include Democrats James Salegui, a progressive from Mount Shasta, and Kyle Wilson, a Santa Rosa-based labor attorney; and Republican Angelita Valles, a former Victorville city councilmember.)

McGuire correctly gauged the mood of California Democrats, who are frustrated with the party’s inability to stop some of the Trump administration’s most unpopular policies, and he spoke candidly about his party’s missteps:

“(I) believe that Democrats need to grow a damn spine in this country,” McGuire said, “to stand up and deliver on the issues that everyday Americans care so deeply about, to call out Donald Trump (and) to be able to call out the sycophants in Congress.”

He also expressed an affinity for the concerns of rural California. McGuire believes in increased Medicaid reimbursement rates for rural hospitals and health centers, and is proposing to double the number of doctors, by expanding rural residency programs. McGuire also mentioned his desire to create a $300 million “distressed hospital fund” in California to reopen hospitals that have been closed, and expand behavioral health services in rural counties, particularly for young people and Native American communities.

McGuire, 46, comes from a family of farmers. He served on the Healdsburg City Council, giving him experience at the city level, the county level as a supervisor and the state level as a senator and senate leader. He has enjoyed a strong environmental scorecard during his time in Legislature and helped pass legislation in response to the Los Angeles fires.

We believe McGuire’s experience makes him the right choice for voters in the North State.