SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Southern California Senate hopeful Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, made her first Sacramento-area campaign stop Wednesday at UC Davis — what she called “a little slice of heaven” — in an hour-long meet-and-greet with the Davis College Democrats.
“I see Sacramento as distinct from the Bay Area the same way that I see Orange County as different than Los Angeles,’” Porter said in an interview after the event. “I know that we often overlook everything but LA and the Bay ... but I’m really committed to making sure that I see all of California.”
Porter announced her run for Senate in January. An early L.A. Times poll showed Porter and fellow Southern California Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, in a tight race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2024. Trailing behind them is Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who entered the contest in February. The L.A. Times poll also showed that the UC Irvine law professor is favored highly among young voters, particularly those under 40.
About 70 students came to meet Porter in a crowded room at the university’s alumni center. They asked her about abortion, the Supreme Court, high-speed rail and infrastructure, right-wing extremism and working across the aisle, Citizens United, and being a woman in politics.
Frances Haydock, the club’s President, said she likes the idea of a woman replacing Sen. Feinstein and thinks that Porter’s progressive policies resonate with young voters like herself.
“I think we need cool, genuine people in the Senate,” Haydock said. “I’m hoping that cool, progressive candidates in the race will energize younger voters.”
Trying to separate from the competition
Porter was the first to announce, but the field is already growing. In addition to Schiff and Lee, progressive Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, is considering a bid. It’s a race among Democrats whose politics aren’t dramatically different, though Schiff is certainly closer to the center than Porter and Lee, whose elections would signify a major progressive shift for the party in California.
She distinguishes herself from the competition in two major ways: first, her rural background and ability to flip a red district, and second, her commitment to running on the economy and economic oversight.
“One of the contrasts is I think economic issues are incredibly important policy areas,” she said, echoing her former Harvard Law professor and mentor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
“They’re not second fiddle to me. They’re at the heart and center of why I got into politics ... I don’t think you can really separate out some of the fights about democracy from opportunity and equality in this country, which is driven by economic issues” like consumer protection, competition policy, home ownership and small business formation.
Schiff left his mark on the national political stage when he oversaw former President Donald Trump’s two impeachment inquiries as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Lee has used her time as Congresswoman to champion social issues as former chair of the Progressive Caucus.
But Porter’s focus has always been the banking industry. Her law career began with a focus on bankruptcy and, like Warren, she was a law professor before entering politics. In 2012, then-Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed Porter to oversee a $25 billion mortgage settlement, and she’s gained notoriety in Congress for her pointed questioning of unsuspecting bank CEOs, often with a whiteboard in tow.
“I love being a watchdog,” Porter said Wednesday. “Oversight is about being a watchdog for our families, for our tax dollars, for our retirement savings, for our futures. It’s about closing that gap between what politicians say at press conferences and what the law says on paper, and what really happens in peoples’ lives.”
Incidents like the Silicon Valley Bank fallout are what made her want to go into politics in the first place.
“If we do not provide guardrails to capitalism, it will crash,” she said, when asked about SVB.
The idea that “being pro-business is deregulating” is “exactly what animated me getting involved in politics,” she said. “Bank failures are not pro-business. They are incredibly damaging to our business community.”
Earlier this week, Porter and Warren introduced legislation Tuesday to roll back a Trump-era law that weakened regulations for banks with between $50 billion to $250 billion in assets.
Courting Northern California voters
When Porter and Schiff both announced their candidacies in January, voters expressed a certain wariness about two Los Angeles-area candidates replacing a longtime Bay Area Senator, especially when California’s other Senator Alex Padilla is an LA native. Lee’s record and reputation as a Bay Area progressive might not play well in rural parts of the state that lean purple and red. Porter believes she’s the right Democrat to run in these regions.
“I’ve campaigned in tough areas, areas that people thought Democrats couldn’t win in,” she said on Wednesday. “I know how to talk about issues in a way that cuts through party noise ... It’s really, really important to draw in non-party preference voters, or people who’ve been Republican over to our side, that’s how I won in Orange County.”
Porter, 49, ran for Congress in 2017 just south of Los Angeles in District 45, encompassing the traditionally conservative Orange County. She came in second in the 2018 primary election to incumbent Republican Mimi Walters, but ultimately pulled ahead in the general election that November to oust Walters by about 12,500 votes. Porter has held onto her House seat through two tough races since; in 2022, she held onto her seat against Republican Scott Baugh, despite Republicans throwing millions of dollars Baugh’s way.
She grew up on a farm in Southern Iowa, a proud 9-year veteran of her county’s 4-H program. Porter said her rural roots have prepared her well to campaign outside the big cities and in places similar to the North State, where elected Democrats are sparse.
“I’ve had to stand on my own two feet and persuade voters in some of the toughest parts in California to support me, and I’ve done it without compromising my values,” she said. “Without becoming a mushy moderate or a Blue Dog or taking corporate money.”
It’s a challenge she says she’s excited about.
“I love campaigning. I can’t get enough of it,” she said, as she’s eager to see “the tribal communities, the agricultural communities, the rural communities, the border communities.”
She’s also confident that she can use her Senate bid to bring out voter turnout in Republican strongholds.
“It’s important, at the top of the ticket in a Senatorial race, I can help people across the state be able to win. We can help drive turnout in those places.”
Tensions at UC Davis
Porter’s visit followed a contentious night on campus. Students protested a Tuesday speaking engagement by Charlie Kirk, the right-wing commentator and founder of Turning Point USA. The UC Davis chapter of TPUSA invited Kirk, who was in Sacramento a year ago to speak at Destiny Church.
Two people at the protest were arrested for allegedly painting graffiti, and one police officer was injured after being pushed to the ground. According to UC Davis Police, people threw eggs, used pepper spray and broke windows.
Chancellor Gary May called Kirk “a well-documented proponent of misinformation and hate and who has advocated for violence against transgender individuals.” But he defended the Davis TPUSA club’s right to host him, “even if the speaker’s intended speech is loathsome and hurtful to me and to others in our campus community.”
“We have to value and respect free speech,” said Porter, when asked about Kirk’s visit and the subsequent protest. “But we have to also be willing to call out and fight against and hold people to account for hate speech ... I’m proud of anyone who was out there making your voice heard, and protesting and being respectful and engaging, because you sent a powerful message to (Kirk) about how out of sync his values are with our values.”
____
