Kyle Wilson celebrated his 33rd birthday Nov. 15 meeting potential constituents at a Santa Rosa coffee shop.
Sporting a “KYLE WILSON for Congress” button pinned to his brown pullover sweater, Wilson – one of several Democrats vying for the seat in the reconfigured U.S. congressional District 1 that includes Chico and Santa Rosa – chatted with Sonoma County residents who joined him for coffee. Many pinned the novice candidate’s large buttons on their shirts and jackets.
Wilson, a Santa Rosa labor lawyer who defends workers against companies he believes are abusive, smiled when one of the coffee shop visitors told him he “made the front page” of the local daily. He hadn’t yet seen the Press Democrat’s detailed profile that labeled him a “long-shot candidate.”
Only one of the Democrats who have emerged to seek support – State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire of Healdsburg – has previously held a public office. The seat is held now by Doug LaMalfa, a Republican rice farmer from Richvale.
Audrey Denney, who is well-known in Butte County, teaches at Chico State and once led the Democratic Action Club in Chico, is also campaigning for the seat after two previous tries at unseating LaMalfa.
Although Wilson may indeed be a longshot, he projected confidence to voters who came to meet him on his birthday and pointed to what he said is a nationwide trend as younger people work to change the system. In a Reddit post from early November, Wilson said, “Watching [New York City Mayor-elect] Zohran Mamdani’s campaign win showed what’s possible when regular people take on entrenched power and actually win.
“That’s the energy we’re building here. Real change comes when communities stop waiting for permission and start building power together.”
Wilson, who grew up in unincorporated Sonoma County between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, said he will stand up for small farmers and small business people, not corporate agribusiness and major corporations. He told ChicoSol he plans to hold a campaign event in Chico – a city he got to know several years ago when his brother worked here – within the month.
Although McGuire has something of a statewide presence, all the candidates will have to make themselves better known in counties they have not worked or campaigned in previously. The redrawn District 1 will take on a more horizontal shape, from Santa Rosa through Chico and Paradise to the Nevada border, while excluding some northeastern counties bordering Oregon.
Career politics questioned
In the Democratic primary next spring, Wilson and Denney, who both say they will depend on small donors, will face McGuire, who has already boasted that he “hauled in” more than $150,000 on day one of his candidacy.
When one of the voters who came to the Brew coffee shop to meet Wilson asked, “Are you going to make politics a career or are you going to get in, get the job done and get out?” Wilson answered, “I believe in term limits. I already have a career.”
Rather than build a financial war chest, Wilson hopes to inspire a “volunteer army” that will send him to Washington, D.C.
Denney also said she plans to fund her campaign with support from ordinary people rather than wealthy individuals or corporations. “We built two powerful grassroots campaigns fueled by thousands of volunteers and donors across the district,” she states on her website. “We knocked on doors, made phone calls, and held town halls in every corner of California’s First District. We came closer than anyone else had to flipping Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s seat.”
In a recent KZFR radio broadcast, she said, “ This campaign will be building on the momentum from 2018 and 2020.”
McGuire was only 19 when he ran his first successful political campaign for a seat on the Healdsburg school board. He went on to be the mayor of Healdsburg, a Sonoma County supervisor and a California State senator. After three four-year terms, he will term out of the Senate. That makes for 27 years in public office.
LaMalfa has held the District 1 seat since 2013. There are no term limits for the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate.
Lindajoy Fenley is a contributing writer and editor at ChicoSol.
McGuire was also on his city council and the youngest mayor there.