Former Shasta County Supervisor Tim Garman drops out of District 5 race, endorses Gallagher

REDDING, Calif. — Former Shasta County Supervisor Tim Garman has withdrawn from the June 2026 District 5 supervisor race, ending a bid to unseat incumbent Chris Kelstrom and capping a political career defined by a dramatic ideological evolution on one of Northern California's most polarized governing bodies.

Garman, who represented District 2 from 2022 to 2025, had announced his candidacy in August 2025. In withdrawing, he endorsed Anderson City Council member Mike Gallagher, who will now face incumbent Kelstrom in the June primary.

In a statement released Thursday, Garman said the decision came after "a lot of prayer and heartfelt conversations with my family and supporters."

"My heart is to serve the people," he said. "However, being the pastor of a growing church (Happy Valley Community Church), along with running a business and serving on several community boards requires significant time and attention. I believe District 5 deserves a supervisor who can fully devote the time needed to respond to every call and email."

Garman endorsed Anderson City Council member Mike Gallagher in the race. "District 5 needs someone who can give the role their full attention, and I believe Mike Gallagher is ready to do that," he said.

A recall-era rise

Garman's entry into county politics was forged in the backlash to COVID-19 public health mandates. In early 2021, recall petitions were filed against three Shasta County supervisors. Only the effort against Supervisor Leonard Moty, a former Redding police chief and moderate Republican, gathered enough signatures to force a special election.

On Feb. 1, 2022, voters recalled Moty, with 56% voting in favor of his removal. In the replacement contest, Garman, then the board president of the Happy Valley Union School District and a former roofer, won with a plurality of 38%, or 2,391 votes, defeating three opponents. Dale Ball finished second with about 36%.

Garman campaigned on a platform of "local control" and listening to what he called the "forgotten" residents of the district. Political observers initially viewed his victory as a consolidation of power for the conservative faction led by Supervisor Patrick Jones, which had championed the recall. But Garman sought to temper that narrative from the start, telling the Sacramento Bee that the recall effort was started by "a group of mothers," not militias.

Early alignment and the Ramstrom firing

Garman's initial votes on the board tracked closely with the conservative majority. On May 3, 2022, he joined Jones and then-Board Chair Les Baugh in a 3-2 vote to fire County Health Officer Dr. Karen Ramstrom without cause. Supervisors Mary Rickert and Joe Chimenti dissented. The move came despite performance reviews that Ramstrom said cited no deficiencies.

The firing accelerated a departure of senior county staff. It followed the retirement of Health and Human Services Agency Director Donnell Ewert, who, according to A News Cafe, cited the toxic political climate as a factor in his decision.

The Dominion vote and a public break

By January 2023, the board's composition had shifted. Supervisors Baugh and Chimenti had left office, replaced by Kelstrom and Kevin Crye, giving the conservative wing what appeared to be a 4-1 advantage with Rickert as the sole moderate. Jones moved to terminate the county's contract with Dominion Voting Systems, citing unverified election fraud claims and concerns about "voter trust."

Garman broke with the bloc. At the Jan. 24, 2023, meeting, he voted against the termination, siding with Rickert. County staff, including Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen and County Counsel Rubin Cruse, had warned that canceling the contract without a certified replacement would violate state law and expose the county to significant legal liability.

"We cannot ditch a machine without having something in place," Garman said during the meeting. "I'm not going to open up our county to that liability and to those lawsuits. It would not be fiscally responsible to do so."

The motion passed 3-2, with Jones, Crye and Kelstrom voting in favor. The vote marked the beginning of Garman's public estrangement from the faction that had propelled his rise.

Hand-count push and the Lindell offer

The rift deepened in February and March 2023 as the board debated how to replace the Dominion system. Crye revealed he had been in contact with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of election conspiracy theories, who had offered to place money in an escrow account to underwrite the county's transition to a hand-count system, funds that never materialized.

Garman denounced the arrangement. "You're trying to save the county by putting it up for sale," he told Crye during a board session.

The board majority directed staff to develop a manual tally plan. In a report presented March 28, 2023, Registrar Allen estimated the cost at more than $1.6 million, requiring over 1,300 workers. Garman and Rickert voted against proceeding, but the 3-2 majority pressed forward.

The push prompted state lawmakers to pass Assembly Bill 969, which banned manual tallies for elections with more than 1,000 registered voters. Garman publicly supported the measure. "Shasta County is not our own country," he said, "We don't get to make all of our own laws. … We've stepped way out of our lane with this."

A moral line

In June 2023, a resident used a racial slur during public comment at a board meeting. Board Chair Jones did not intervene, but Garman addressed the room immediately afterward.

"I want to apologize hopefully on behalf of this entire board for language that was used," Garman said. "Racism sucks and there is no place for it in this day and age, and I am shocked that we heard it today."

In a later interview with The Guardian, Garman reflected on the broader atmosphere. "I didn't realize the level of hatred that was behind these people," he said. "They're just mean people and that's not who I am."

Final battles and departure

Garman spent much of 2024 as a vocal minority on the board. When the majority created a Shasta County Elections Commission, Garman attempted to appoint critics of the body to serve on it. The board rejected both of his nominees — first activist Nathan Pinkney and then myself, Benjamin Nowain, a county employee and citizen journalist of this publication, The North State Breakdown. Both failed by 3-2 votes.

In the November 2024 election, Garman signed the official argument against Measure Q, a ballot initiative that would have given the board power to appoint replacements for midterm vacancies in elected offices. He warned that the measure lacked voter input and that special elections could cost the county $900,000 each.

Garman's term ended in January 2025. He was succeeded by Allen Long. During his final board report on Dec. 19, 2024, Garman reflected on his tenure and offered a rare public expression of regret over his earliest and most consequential vote, the firing of Dr. Karen Ramstrom.

"There was one vote early on with Dr. Ramstrom that I wish I had that vote to do over again," Garman said. "I rushed into that vote. I wish I would have given that some more consideration. It wasn't fair to her. I only met with her one time. I wish I would have met with her two or three or four times just to really get to understand her and know her. That's the only vote I feel like I wish I could have just paused, put a pause button on it."

Garman also used the meeting to defend his independence, saying he voted "on my own accord" on every item and that no one "pushed me into a vote" or "bullied me into a vote." He told the board he had worked for "every citizen of Shasta County" regardless of political affiliation.

In separate parting remarks, Garman offered a blunt assessment of the board's direction: "Maybe don't just do some more MAGA nonsense, because clearly people in the country don't like that. Let's fix our county and stop the pity party."

A short-lived comeback bid

Garman announced in August 2025 that he would challenge Kelstrom for the District 5 seat, telling A News Cafe he would be "focusing on solutions." The race represented a direct rematch with one of the board members who had most frequently clashed with Garman during his tenure.

His withdrawal and endorsement of Gallagher now sets up a two-candidate race for the June 2026 primary.

What's next

Garman said he is not ruling out a return to public life but is stepping back for now. In a statement to the North State Breakdown he said: "Who knows what future holds. You may see me back in politics someday," Garman said. "As for now I will be concentrating on church, family, my business, and faithfully serving the Type 1 diabetes community."