LaMalfa is a fourth-generation rice farmer and a lifelong Northern California resident. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor's degree in Ag/Business. He and his wife, Jill, along with their four children, make their home on the family rice farm in Richvale, a rural unincorporated community south of Chico, that was founded by his great-grandfather in 1931. LaMalfa is an owner and manager of the Dsl Lamalfa Family Partnership, which owns and operates the family farm.
In 2002, LaMalfa ran for the California Assembly in the 2nd District. He won the Republican primary with 59% of the vote, and the general election with 67%. He won re-election in 2004 and 2006.
Tenure
LaMalfa worked with Bernie Richter as an early supporter of Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in California. He worked for passage of the Protection of Marriage Act, Proposition 22, which banned Same-sex marriage in California, and after that initiative was overturned by the courts, he was an early supporter and active in the Proposition 8 campaign. LaMalfa opposed Mike Feuer's microstamping bill, AB 1471, which was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 13, 2007. LaMalfa was a co-author of ACA 20, which, similar to Arizona's new law, would empower law enforcement to act as Immigration, Customs Enforcement Agents and would have cracked down on illegal immigration. ACA 20 failed to pass the first hearing by a 3-to-6 vote. In 2007, he successfully passed AB 1645, a law that would prevent seizures of firearms in the event of an emergency or natural disaster. This was the first pro-gun legislation passed and signed into law in a decade. When LaMalfa was named the California Rifle and Pistol Association's "Legislator of the Year" for 2007, he said "Receiving this award today from the California Rifle and Pistol Association is a truly humbling honor."
In 2010, he ran for the California State Senate in the 4th District. In the Republican primary, he defeated State Representative Rick Keene 58%–42%. In the general election, he defeated Lathe Gill 68%–32%.
Tenure
In November 2011, LaMalfa opposed a proposed bullet train. He did so, saying "In light of the High Speed Rail plan that was submitted and that the numbers still do not work, California in this dire fiscal crisis that we're in, we're going to introduce legislation to repeal the HSR Authority and the funding for that the state was going to put forward". LaMalfa opposed a bill that would require history teachers in all California public schools to teach history of homosexuality and gay civil rights. LaMalfa stated the Governor Brown was "out of touch with what I think are still mainstream American values. That's not the kind of stuff I want my kids learning about in public school. They've really crossed a line into a new frontier." LaMalfa strongly opposed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would eliminate the Electoral College. He argued "I think this is dangerous. It flies in the face of 220 years of election law. We have an electoral college; it was put there for a reason."
Committee assignments
Agriculture
Budget and Fiscal Review
Elections and Constitutional Amendments
Governance and Finance
Natural Resources and Water
Veterans Affairs
Joint Committee on Legislative Audit
Joint Committee on Fairs, Allocation, and Classification
In January 2012, 2nd district Congressman Wally Herger announced that he was retiring after thirteen terms. Hours after Herger announced his retirement, Republican consultant Dave Gilliard told Flash Report that Herger had endorsed LaMalfa as his successor in the district, which was renumbered as the 1st District in the 2010 round of redistricting. LaMalfa finished first in the June 2012 primary election with 38% of the vote in an eight-person race, winning 10 out of the district's 11 counties. On November 6, 2012, LaMalfa defeated Democratic Party candidate Jim Reed 57%–43%.
2014
LaMalfa defeated Democratic nominee Heidi Hall in the general election with 61% of the vote.
2016
In the 2016 general election, LaMalfa defeated Democratic nominee Jim Reed with 59.1% of the vote.
2018
LaMalfa defeated Democratic challenger Audrey Denney in the general election. In the hotly contested race, his campaign sent out an attack mailer showing a falsified picture of Denney signing a document supposedly endorsing Nancy Pelosi and liberal Democrats. Denney uploaded the original photograph to her campaign website in February 2018 to show her signing a promise to oppose campaign contributions from the petroleum industry. LaMalfa's campaign altered the wording on the document for their mailer.
In 2014, during a candidate forum where the previous speaker stated that once we get past the debate about climate change, a debate about solutions can start, LaMalfa stated "The climate of the globe has been fluctuating since God created it". In 2017, about climate change, LaMalfa was quoted as saying "I don’t buy the idea that man-made activity is responsible."
Farming
From 1995 to 2016, LaMalfa was the recipient of the largest amount of money from agricultural subsidies in the history of congress. As a member of the House Agricultural Committee, he oversees farm subsidies. In 2017, his spokesman, Parker Williams, stated that LaMalfa "voted to end direct farm subsidy payments in the very first farm bill he worked on" and that a new farm bill proposed does not provide subsidies for rice grown in California, a crop that LaMalfa farms.
Immigration
LaMalfa has an A+ rating from NumbersUSA, an organization that opposes immigration.
In 2014, LaMalfa was named one of the most "anti-LGBT" politicians in congress by the Human Rights Campaign. He does not believe in same-sex marriage and feared that legalizing it would "open the floodgates" for polygamy to be legalized. He believes marriage is "an institution created by God and supposed to be held up and respected by men. And women." He endorsed the First Amendment Defense Act.
Voter fraud
He stated that "California is just a sieve on its voter security" but does not think his own district had "illegal votes" because it does not "have the demographics that would be a really big push of that."
Gun policy
LaMalfa's website states that he is "proud to have earned an A rating and the endorsements of the NRA and Gun Owners of America." He has received $13,500 from the NRA.
Taxes
LaMalfa voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. According to LaMalfa, the bill will enable his constituents to save more money and provide them tax relief. He says that the tax bill will give a "booster shot to the U.S. economy". He believes that the bill enable businesses to hire more workers and that there will be more products made in the USA as a result, especially in Redding.
