{"id":333816,"date":"2026-05-27T02:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333816\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:34:13","slug":"californias-confusing-1st-congressional-district-primary-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333816\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s confusing 1st Congressional District primary, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Inside California Politics\/FOX40) \u2014 Some voters in California\u2019s 1st Congressional District will vote for the same candidate twice on Election Day in races that could send two different state lawmakers to Congress.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because there are two different primary elections in the district \u2014 one is the special election to replace the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa and another is to serve the next two years in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Confused yet? Let\u2019s rewind a few months.<\/p>\n

1st Congressional District \u2014 Special Election Primary<\/p>\n

The seat has been vacant since LaMalfa, a Republican congressman, died Jan. 6 at the age of 65<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom set the primary election<\/a> to replace LaMalfa for June 2, where it will coincide with California\u2019s normal primary. The timing was much to the chagrin of Asm. James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, who is running for the seat and hoped for an earlier date.<\/p>\n

Gallagher is term-limited in his current seat, the 3rd Assembly District. He was first elected to the Assembly in 2014 and served as minority leader from 2022 until 2025.<\/p>\n

He faces two Democratic opponents in the special election primary, state Sen. Mike McGuire and nonprofit consultant Audrey Denney.<\/p>\n

Denney has run unsuccessfully for the seat two previous times, in 2018 and 2020. It\u2019s the first shot at Congress for McGuire who was recently majority leader and president pro tempore of California\u2019s state Senate.<\/p>\n

The primary election will be held under the current congressional maps, drawn after the 2020 midterms. Under those boundaries, the 1st District favors Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

If Gallagher \u2014 or any candidate \u2014 wins at least 50% of the vote, they will go directly to the U.S. House and serve the remainder of LaMalfa\u2019s term. If not, Gallaghter will face either McGuire or Denney in a special election run-off Aug. 4.<\/p>\n

1st Congressional Election \u2014 Midterm Primary<\/p>\n

Under Proposition 50, approved by California voters last year, the 1st District\u2019s boundaries have been re-drawn. The midterm race for the seat, held under the new map, will favor Democrats.<\/p>\n

Some voters will only be eligible to vote in one primary or the other. Others, who live within both the old and new 1st District lines, will vote in both.<\/p>\n

The same trio of candidates is running in the normal primary: Gallagher, McGuire and Denney. The top two candidates will advance to the November general election, where the winner will serve a full two-year term in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Inside California Politics\/FOX40) \u2014 Some voters in California\u2019s 1st Congressional District will vote for the same candidate twice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[138138,7,9,8,4761,15617,31909,20795,121043,6359,9606],"class_list":["post-333816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-1st-district","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-congressional-district","tag-doug-lamalfa","tag-james-gallagher","tag-mike-mcguire","tag-primary-elections","tag-special-election","tag-u-s-house-of-representatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}