{"id":24948,"date":"2026-01-06T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/sudden-death-of-gop-lawmaker-threatens-trump-majority-as-second-republican-80-rushed-to-hospital\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:58:00","slug":"sudden-death-of-gop-lawmaker-threatens-trump-majority-as-second-republican-80-rushed-to-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/sudden-death-of-gop-lawmaker-threatens-trump-majority-as-second-republican-80-rushed-to-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudden death of GOP lawmaker threatens Trump majority – as second Republican, 80, rushed to hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>

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California<\/a> Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa has suddenly passed away at the age of 65.<\/p>\n

National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Richard Hudson called LaMalfa’a principled conservative and a tireless advocate for the people of Northern California.’<\/p>\n

‘He was never afraid to fight for rural communities, farmers, and working families. Doug brought grit, authenticity, and conviction to everything he did in public service,’ Hudson said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

House Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer described LaMalfa as ‘a loving father and husband, and staunch advocate for his constituents and rural America.’<\/p>\n

LaMalfa’s death imperils the Republican House majority, leaving Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a>with just a three-vote margin after the formal resignation of Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene on Monday.<\/p>\n

House makeup is presently 218 Republicans to 213 Democrats<\/a>, leaving Republicans able to lose no more than two votes on any party-line measure, assuming full attendance and participation.<\/p>\n

It was also revealed Tuesday that Indiana Republican Congressman Jim Baird, aged 80, has been hospitalized after a car accident.<\/p>\n

Baird’s office said that the lawmaker is expected to make a full recovery after his car was struck. Donald Trump said Baird’s wife was also hospitalized but will be OK, during an address to Republicans at the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

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Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Oroville) answers a question during a town hall meeting on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Chico, California<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Indiana State Rep. Jim Baird, Republican candidate for Indiana’s 4th Congressional District, speaks at a campaign rally featuring President Donald Trump in Indianapolis, Nov. 2, 2018<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson must now navigate the perils of an even slimmer GOP majority, and can not afford to lose more than two votes on party-line measures<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Democrats are set to gain one additional vote in their caucus after a runoff election in Texas later this month to replace Congressman Sylvester Turner, who passed away last March, taking the Republican margin down to two votes.<\/p>\n

Another special election will take place to replace former New Jersey Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherill in April after she was elected the state’s governor in November.<\/p>\n

Trump paid tribute to LaMalfa during his address on Tuesday, noting that the lawmaker voted withhim ‘100 percent of the time.’<\/p>\n

The President said that he ‘was thinking about not even doing the speech in [LaMalfa’s] honor, but then I decided that I have to do it in his honor. I’ll do it in his honor, because he would have wanted it that way.’<\/p>\n

LaMalfa served as Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, and was a member of the Agriculture Committee.<\/p>\n

Before his election to Congress in 2012, LaMalfa served in the California Senate and state assembly. He was also a fourth-generation rice farmer.<\/p>\n

After the passage of California’s Prop 50 redistricting ballot measure last November, LaMalfa’s seat landed on the Democrat list of pickup targets in this year’s midterm election.<\/p>\n

LaMalfa planned to run again for his seat, despite the new district lines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 09:39 EST, 6 January 2026 | Updated: 18:58 EST, 6 January 2026 California Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa has suddenly passed away at the age of 65. National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Richard Hudson called LaMalfa’a principled conservative and a tireless advocate for the people of Northern California.’ ‘He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}