SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Republican Doug LaMalfa, a California rice farmer who served seven terms in the U.S. House and was a reliable vote on President Donald Trump's agenda, has died at age 65.
His death trims the Republicans’ narrow margin of control of the House to 218 seats to Democrats’ 213.
The congressman experienced a medical emergency Monday night and was taken to a local hospital, where he died during a surgical procedure, the Butte County sheriff’s office said Tuesday. Officials haven't disclosed the cause of his death.
Trump expressed “tremendous sorrow” over LaMalfa’s death as he addressed a meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, lamenting the loss of a lawmaker he championed as an ally for his agenda. He said the late congressman “wasn’t a 3 o’clock in the morning person” like other lawmakers he would call in the wee hours to lobby for their votes.
“He voted with me 100% of the time,” Trump said. “With Doug, I never had to call.”
LaMalfa, a fourth-generation rice farmer, was elected to Congress in 2012 after serving in the state Legislature. He represented California's 1st District, which covered a vast portion of the state's rural North, spanning from the Oregon border down to just north of the capital, Sacramento.
He was a regular presence on the House floor, helping GOP leadership open the chamber and frequently offering his view on local and national affairs. He served on the House Agriculture Committee and as the chairman of a subcommittee with jurisdiction over forestry issues. He also served on committees dealing with transportation and natural resource issues.
LaMalfa had planned to run for reelection despite his district being dramatically redrawn under a ballot measure passed by California voters in November. The measure, backed by Democrats, was designed to make it harder for LaMalfa and four other Republicans to win reelection.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, must call a special election to replace LaMalfa, his office said. The election could happen as late as June, when California will hold its primary for the 2026 midterm.
LaMalfa's colleagues, staff members and friends said he cared deeply about his district, often driving far distances to check in with constituents and working on key local issues such as wildfire prevention and water storage.
"He would show up at the smallest events that were important in people’s lives in this district,” recalled David Reade, a former chief of staff of LaMalfa’s from the state legislature. “He would drive literally hundreds and hundreds of miles to be there.”
His current chief of staff, Mark Spannagel, who started working for him in 2002, said the congressman was a “deeply funny guy." He was obsessed with cars, often showing up at events with grease under his fingernails, and he loved classic rock and the “Austin Powers” movies, Spannagel said.
“He’s probably one of the most normal people in Congress, down to earth,” he said in a phone interview. “You want to sit there and have an iced tea with him.”
LaMalfa once traveled to multiple Veterans Affairs offices in Washington to advocate for a constituent, Spannagel said. He also would host town halls and political events in small towns in his district to meet more constituents.
“Just because, ‘Why not? We’re gonna go do them. We’re gonna be there. Let those people be heard, too,’" he said. “It’s not all about the biggest city or the biggest town.”
One of his priorities in Congress was advocating for wildfire mitigation and protecting victims, said state Assembly member James Gallagher, who called LaMalfa his “big brother.”
LaMalfa successfully passed legislation in 2024 to exempt wildfire relief payments from federal income taxes. It came after parts of his district were ravaged by the deadliest wildfire in state history in 2018. President Joe Biden signed it into law. LaMalfa also called for increased water storage and for more forest management to reduce the threat of wildfires.
But LaMalfa's unwavering support of Trump has prompted frustration for some voters in recent years. Some were hoping to oust him during the midterm election because of his vote for Trump's plan to overhaul health care, food assistance and other rural resources. LaMalfa was met with yelling and booing at several town halls last year.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson called LaMalfa “a principled conservative and a tireless advocate for the people of Northern California.”
“He was never afraid to fight for rural communities, farmers, and working families,” Hudson said. "Doug brought grit, authenticity, and conviction to everything he did in public service.”
C-SPAN in a recent compilation said LaMalfa gave at least one set of remarks for the record on 81 days in 2025. Only two other lawmakers spoke on the House floor more frequently.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York called for a moment of silence in honor of LaMalfa at the start of a panel at the Capitol commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Catalini reported from Trenton, N.J., and Freking from Washington. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him. It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop.
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The killing was at least the fifth in a handful of states since 2024.
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Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters. Unlike federal officials, O’Hara didn’t say the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. ... At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said.
“At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
The governor said he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He also said that like many, he is outraged about the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” But he called for calm.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference.
“If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
The president, in a social media post, said he’d viewed video footage of the incident and criticized the woman who was shot as acting “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting” and “then violently, willfully, and viciously” running over the ICE officer.
The president also described another woman seen screaming in the footage of the incident he viewed as “obviously, a professional agitator.”
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Trump said of the ICE officer.
“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”
An immigrant rights group says on Facebook that it will hold a vigil for the woman who was shot.
“We witnessed an atrocious attack on our community today,” read the post from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. “Community members were taken from us and an observer was shot dead. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA NOW.”
Minnesota initially grabbed President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ attention over a series of fraud cases where many of the defendants had roots in Somalia. Prosecutors say that billions of dollars were stolen from federally funded health care benefits and a COVID-19 program in recent years.
Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the U.S., a group Trump called “garbage” in December and said he didn’t want them in the country.
The president has also criticized Democratic Gov. Walz for failing to catch the alleged crimes.
Late last month, a right-wing influencer posted a video claiming that a day care center in Minneapolis run by Somali residents had taken over $100 million in fraud. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel then posted on social media about increased operations in the city partly targeting, as Patel put it, “large-scale fraud schemes.”
On Tuesday, DHS said it planned to deploy 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area.
In October, a Chicago woman was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in a similar incident involving a vehicle, though she survived.
Almost immediately, Homeland Security officials issued a statement labeling Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old teaching assistant at a Montessori school, as a “domestic terrorist” who had “ambushed” and “rammed” agents with her vehicle.
She was charged in federal court with assaulting a federal officer, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But federal prosecutors were later forced to dismiss the case against Martinez before trial after security camera video and bodycam footage emerged that her defense lawyers said undermined the official narrative.
The videos showed a Border Patrol agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s truck, rather than the other way around, her attorney said.
“I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” Walz wrote on X, responding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s post alleging that a woman had “weaponized her vehicle” before she was shot and killed by an ICE officer.
The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice,” wrote the governor.
Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, says that “We have jurisdiction to bring charges, as do the feds.
“It’s a little bit of a complicated interplay but the bottom line is yes, we have jurisdiction to bring criminal charges.”
Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, says it was carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
But Mayor Frey blasted that characterization as well as the federal deployment in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said.
The location is just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
During a news conference in Texas on Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the agency had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities and already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
The mayor says in a social media post that immigration agents are “causing chaos in our city.”
“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said.
The crowd vented its anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that harkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago immigration crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.
That’s according to a statement from department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. It’s at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.
The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with more than 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed a motorist acted recklessly. Fry rejected federal officials’ claims that the officer had acted in self-defense.
During a news conference hours after the ICE officer shot the woman, an angry Frey blasted the federal immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets and in this case quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense," the mayor said.
Law enforcement agents stand on the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers work the scene of a shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole and blood stains are seen in a crashed vehicle on at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Ben Hovland/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
