Unchecked Democrats are running wild in Sacramento, and unchecked Republicans are doing the same in Washington.

Our political system works better with checks and balances, with a minority party that challenges the ideas and policies of the people in power.

That’s why we endorsed Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher and Republican Sen. Jim Nielsen for the state Legislature on Sunday’s editorial page.

And that’s why we’re endorsing Democrat Audrey Denney for Congress today.

President Donald Trump has enacted some worthwhile changes in Washington. He has also shown an appalling lack of self-restraint. With a bully’s mentality, he picks on anybody who gets in his way and encourages violence against his perceived enemies. He cruelly pokes at women, minorities, journalists, Democrats, longtime American allies … and sidles up to despots.

Trump needs somebody in his circle to temper his words, to treat him like a parent treats a wayward teenager and say, “No, that’s not acceptable.”

Don’t expect that from his Republican supplicants in Congress. Most have no backbone.

North state Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, doesn’t cross Trump.There are two possible reasons why he doesn’t speak up: Either he lacks courage to speak his mind, or he agrees.

We certainly hope LaMalfa realizes Trump is uninformed when he blames California wildfires on environmentalists and a lack of water. Does LaMalfa really think it would be good to raise Shasta Dam and displace homes, roads and bridges? He has no problem sending more north state water to the San Joaquin Valley at the expense of the delta? He doesn’t realize that Trump’s tariff war with China and other trade partners is hurting farmers right here? Or that Congress’ inability to enact any sort of immigration reform means some north state farmers can’t find workers to help harvest the crop? Or that it’s better to work with our neighbors in the Mexican government to secure our borders than to alienate them? Or that Trump’s racist dog whistles aimed at blacks, Hispanics and Muslims are offensive to people right here in his district?

Maybe. But he’ll never say it.

We’ve only seen LaMalfa vote against Trump’s wishes once, on a federal budget vote that LaMalfa knew would pass anyway. We’ve never heard him question the president’s many inaccuracies, or try to temper his divisive comments.

Our endorsement of Denney goes beyond LaMalfa just being a yes man for Trump. His lack of significant accomplishments in Congress also plays a role. He’s a reliable vote for whatever the party wants but he hasn’t written any monumental bills in his six years in Congress.

This newspaper hasn’t endorsed a Democrat for Congress for decades, probably all the way back to conservative Democrat Bizz Johnson in the 1970s. We don’t take the endorsement lightly. Democrats have fielded a steady stream of unimpressive candidates for Congress who get little support from the party, knowing they have no chance in the conservative district.

Denney has no experience either, and that’s a shame, but she’s still a solid, well-schooled candidate.

Despite the time-tested political trick of trying to claim she has “San Francisco values,” Denney is a Chico resident, 34 years old, who grew up on a family farm, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agriculture from Chico State University, lived in Ghana and El Salvador working on ag projects, and taught agriculture at Chico State.

She says she was a registered Republican for 10 years.

She says she’s a gun owner who believes that some of California’s laws — like banning bump stocks and universal background checks — should be adopted nationwide.

She talks about career technical education for young people rather than pushing college on everybody.

She talks about student loan forgiveness for people who go into public service jobs, but not free college education.

She approves of Sites Reservoir. She doesn’t approve of Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels under the delta or raising Shasta Dam.

In other words, she sounds closer to a Chico moderate than a San Francisco Democrat, as the ads would have you believe.

In LaMalfa’s three general elections for Congress, no Democratic challenger has come within 15 percentage points. The sprawling northeastern California district has a huge Republican registration advantage. Denney has been reaching out to the district’s many no-party-preference voters, as well as Republicans who don’t approve of LaMalfa’s brand of conservatism.

It would be a monumental, stunning upset. But we don’t make endorsements based on who we think will win, just on who we think should win. That’s Audrey Denney.