'I’ve had my people kidnapped': California Republican whines about losing political war

The New York Times reports residents of rural north California have longed to pull out of liberal California and merge with conservative territory in Oregon to form a new Republican state. But what they’re about to get instead is another Democratic representative.

California responded to Texas’ mid-decade gerrymander for new Republican seats with its own upcoming gerrymander, which is likely to erase California’s Republican minority even further.

Soon after state voters passed the November redistricting measure, Democrat Mike McGuire said he would run in the north California redrawn district. The Times reports Sacramento Valley residents seem anguished but also resigned to their fate.

“There was definitely a feeling of throwing up your hands,” said Orland resident Gene Lifur, 52. “You’re going to lose a lot of the interest for voting in the North State.”

But few are angrier than Republican incumbent Rep. Doug LaMalfa who lives near Richvale but it likely to lose his seat now that California is retaliating against Texas’ gerrymander.

“I’m furious because I’ve had my people kidnapped from me,” LaMalfa told the Times.

“Their voice is being silenced on how they feel about the issues here, because Newsom and the three-to-one ratio of Democrats wanted to see if they could steal five seats,” he said.

Democrats say LaMalfa’s lockstep votes with President Donald Trump have hurt local farmers, however, arguing that LaMalfa’s vote to cut Medicaid will harm rural hospitals. And Trump’s tariffs have raised the costs of farming equipment while “retaliatory tariffs by countries like China have hurt farmers’ exports,” forcing Trump to push yet another financial bailout for U.S. farmers. They add that Trump is also compromising farming industries by targeting immigration raids to blue-state farms.

Instead, Democrats say Republicans have themselves to blame for the gerrymander fight, reports the Times, reminding that California Gov. Gavin Newsom only pushed the gerrymander to after Texas announced it was beginning the process to buttress Trump’s razor-thin margin in the House.

Read the New York Times report at this link.