From State House to Capitol Hill: James Gallagher Takes the Reins in Congress

When James Gallagher walked onto the House floor for the first time as California’s newest congressman, he wasn’t just taking a seat—he was finally giving a voice back to a district that’s felt voiceless for months. The North State Republican won a special election to fill California’s 1st Congressional District, left vacant since Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s death in January, and the weight of that responsibility clearly sits with him.

In his first interview on California Politics 360 with KCRA 3’s Political Director Ashley Zavala, Gallagher didn’t mince words about what brought him to Congress. He’s coming from the overlooked part of California—the rural, agricultural heartland that he says has been ignored by Sacramento’s policies and priorities. His first vote? Legislation tackling waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid programs. That’s not coincidental. Gallagher pointed to the Medi-Cal hospice fraud crisis as a stark example of the problem: one doctor alone billed $287 million fraudulently. That’s money that should be protecting vulnerable communities, not disappearing into criminal schemes.

But Gallagher’s ambitions stretch beyond rooting out bureaucratic fraud. He’s already pushing for committees that matter to his district—Transportation and Infrastructure, and Natural Resources—because rural California’s challenges aren’t abstract. They’re about water storage when you’re in a drought-stricken region, roads that connect farms to markets, and wildfire prevention when your community lives in the shadow of the next big burn. These are survival issues, not policy niceties.

Then there’s the elephant in the room that Gallagher addressed head-on: his conviction that rural California might be better off as its own state. It’s a radical idea that’s been gaining traction in his region. Six counties have already signed on to support his resolution, and Gallagher isn’t shy about why he thinks it’s worth serious consideration—especially after Proposition 50 (California’s recent redistricting measure). When a state consistently passes policies that feel hostile to your region’s way of life—from bans on gas-powered vehicles to refusing to suspend the gas tax—rural Californians start asking why they’re part of the same state at all. Gallagher frames it as self-determination. The path forward, he says, starts with county support, then state legislative consent, then federal approval. Don’t expect it tomorrow, but the conversation isn’t going away.

On foreign policy, Gallagher backed the president’s approach to Iran while emphasizing that Congress needs to do its job—actual oversight, not rubber-stamping. It’s a careful balance he learned in the super-minority of the California Assembly, where he spent more than a decade watching a Democratic-controlled legislature consolidate power. Now that he’s in a Republican-controlled Congress, he’s making clear he won’t abandon institutional checks just because his party holds the majority. That’s integrity talking, even if it’s harder than team loyalty.

As for what he’ll miss from Sacramento? His Republican caucus colleagues, mostly. Though he added with a laugh that he’s already missing California’s weather. After just days in Washington’s humidity, that homesickness might be the most relatable thing he said all interview.