Last night, Republicans gathered in Chico and eagerly awaited the outcome of the 2024 election results.
A Fox News election broadcast was projected onto the walls on each end of a large banquet room at the DoubleTree Hotel, where attendees discussed what the preliminary results could mean for the region.
The president of Butte Republican Women Federated, Kirsten Southam, sat with peers at a large table in the center of the room as it was announced that Republicans were expected to take the U.S. Senate.
“On the news. It just said, Fox News, that we gained Senate control. So that's exciting,” Southam said. “Maybe some things will start to happen in government.”
Ray Wilson, a Chico resident who attended the watch party, said he supports Donald Trump more for his policies than his personality traits and that he's unhappy with the country's recent direction.
“I'm really concerned about how many Americans have been so misled by the media, and they don't really understand the seriousness of what's been going on in our country,” Wilson said. “But I think this kind of proves more Americans woke up, you know?”
District 1 Representative Doug LaMalfa also attended the event, along with Butte County Supervisor Peter Durfee, Chico Mayor Andrew Coolidge, and other local leaders.
LaMalfa discussed a bipartisan bill he sponsored that would offer tax relief to fire victims and said the current Senate has held it up.
“When this election season is over with, I hope we can get back to doing the business, including passing that bill out of the Senate,” LaMalfa said. “The House has done its job at least two times on that to help the fire victims not be taxed on the award that PG&E was required to do for them.”
LaMalfa believes a majority Republican Senate could help.
“That's one of the effects right there that this election season had on something important to our people in this district,” LaMalfa said.
When asked about his race against Rose Penelope Yee for District 1, LaMalfa said he hadn’t yet seen the numbers because he had been traveling between counties in his district on election night, but he had heard the numbers were favorable.
The Associated Press has since declared LaMalfa the winner of the race.
NSPR does not consider the results official until the election is certified.
