Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, isn’t taking her defeat in California’s U.S. Senate race very well.
As of this writing, Porter received 14.1% of the vote on Tuesday, coming in well behind Rep. Adam Schiff (33.5%) and former baseball player Steve Garvey (31.9%). She’s even trailing in her own Orange County.
This kind of political defeat is new for Porter, who has made a name for herself as a fundraising juggernaut with a knack for going viral (at least in political circles) with her effective use of committee hearings.
But she’s taking things especially badly, invoking Trumpist language about the elections being “rigged” against her.
“‘Rigged’ means manipulated by dishonest means,” she wrote on Twitter. “A few billionaires spent $10 million+ on attack ads against me, including an ad rated ‘false’ by an independent fact checker. That is dishonest means to manipulate an outcome.”
We hate to break it to Porter, a smart academic, but negative campaign ads don’t make an election rigged. Yes, people and organizations spend money so they can support and oppose candidates through ads. And yes, in political campaigns people will say things that are not true and even unfair.
Porter no doubt is frustrated that Schiff’s strategy of spending millions to boost Garvey into second place worked so well. Porter tried, far too late, to counter this by trying to boost Republican Eric Early as “MAGA’s Man” in an effort to pull down Garvey. In other words, Porter herself used dishonest means to try to manipulate an outcome. It just didn’t work for her.
This editorial board has often disagreed with Porter, while crediting her for her policy acumen. “We don’t disagree with Porter on everything,” we wrote in our endorsement of Scott Baugh in 2022. “We applaud, for example, her work to end qualified immunity and U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen. But we have a different perspective on the proper role of the federal government.”
Related Articles
In praise of Barbara Lee, a truly courageous voice for peace in an era of perpetual war
Don’t make California health care worse than it already is
A new fiscal commission must heed the lesson of ’97
The way to avoid a war next time is to act, with restraint, now
SCOTUS’s unanimous decision and the pandemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome
Alas, Porter is showing her true colors now that she’s been ousted from public office.
We are reminded of the warning from former Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda about Porter’s Senate candidacy, “You say you want to be our next senator to provide, ‘a voice for the minivan drivers and parents who silently lament $20 field trip fees.’ But that’s not your true desire. Like your own staffers have said, you’re in this for power and position, the ability to bully, and be in the spotlight. Your book revealed your true nature. Your minivan is a prop, and your life is of your choosing.”
Indeed, Porter has, up until now, gotten what she wanted. She’s been springboarded into national political stardom, received plenty of praise for her whiteboard schtick and rubbed elbows with enough wealthy Democratic donors. She believed she could become a U.S. senator with a thin record of accomplishment. And she was wrong. The voters of California didn’t buy what she was selling. Simple as that.
Voters will no doubt remember her angry, Trumpian complaints about the election.