“Audrey Denney is trying to win a House seat twice – first in a special election, and then again after the district is redrawn”
Northern California — This week, The Guardian published a major feature on Audrey Denney’s campaign for Congress, underscoring the stakes of the open CA-01 race and the growing grassroots movement behind her people-powered bid.
The article situates Denny’s campaign within a broader national moment – one defined by voter frustration with corporate influence, political corruption, and a sense that the system is no longer working for everyday people – while centering her deep Northern California roots and long-standing commitment to service over politics.
As Denney told The Guardian:
“The economic and the political systems that we are a part of are serving corporate greed and billionaires at the expense of regular people. This is not the democracy we want to live in. We need to elect people who will stand up to all of those forces at once.”
The piece highlights Denney’s background as an educator, nonprofit leader, and agriculture expert who has spent decades working alongside rural communities, and contrasts her approach with a political system increasingly shaped by wealthy donors and insider power. It also highlights how Audrey can connect with voters of all political persuasions who are “quick to approach Denney at protests and community events to thank her for running, or share their challenges.”
The Guardian highlighted that “Since declaring, [Audrey’s] logged thousands of phone calls and countless miles around the district, visiting communities destroyed by fire and holding events in small-town coffee shops where people speak about their concerns around wildfires, forest health and democracy.”
It also notes Denney’s history of mounting serious challenges in one of California’s most historically underrepresented regions, cutting Republican margins to historic lows while refusing corporate PAC money and frames the newly redrawn CA-01 district as genuinely competitive for the first time in a generation. After the passage of Prop 50, CA-01 will be a bellwether for whether grassroots, values-driven candidates can prevail against establishment politics and corporate influence.
“This coverage reflects what we hear every day on the ground,” said Alex Brown, Denney’s Campaign Manager. “People here are tired of being written off, tired of politics as usual, and ready for leadership that actually shows up. Audrey’s campaign is about service, integrity, and fairness, and that message is resonating far beyond this district.”
Denney is currently running in the special election to fill the vacant CA-01 seat, while continuing her campaign for full-term representation in the newly drawn, post Prop 50 district. Her campaign is powered by small-dollar donors and volunteers across Northern California and has rejected corporate PAC contributions from day one.
Read the full Guardian feature here.
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About Audrey
Audrey Denney (D) is an educator and nonprofit leader running for Congress to represent California’s First District. Rooted in Northern California, Audrey has spent her career fighting for working families, rural communities, and food security at home and abroad. She bartended to pay for college at Chico State, then began a career as a teacher before moving into nonprofit leadership focused on community resilience and food access. Audrey refuses corporate PAC money and believes politics should be about service, integrity, and people, not partisanship. With fair maps and growing grassroots momentum in a district that is poised to flip red-to-blue, she’s running to finally deliver the real representation Northern California families deserve. Learn more at www.AudreyforCongress.com.
