Burbank Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff will face Republican former professional baseball player Steve Garvey in November's general election to be California's next U.S. senator.
In Schiff's victory speech, which was cut short due to protesters chanting, "Ceasefire now," he said, “I also want to acknowledge again my great gratitude to all of my wonderful supporters. I want to acknowledge the right of our protestors. And I look forward to working with you all, and onward to victory in November."
Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswomen Katie Porter of Irvine and Barbara Lee of Oakland came in third and fourth, respectively. There were also primaries to fill Adam Schiff’s and Katie Porter’s House seats that they had to give up to run for Senate.
Recapping the primary election results is Jim Newton, a professor of public policy and communications at UCLA and editor of their journal Blueprint.
He tells KCRW that Schiff got the opponent he wanted and is set for the November face-off, where Democratic voters will likely show up in large numbers. Newton adds that Schiff executed his strategy well in the primary election, when he and a super PAC pushed out ads that portrayed Garvey as a part of the MAGA movement, thus ensuring he’d face a Republican in the general election.
However, Garvey has not said whether or not he supports Trump, and little public information exists on his stance on issues. He also spent zero dollars on campaign ads.
Newton says Garvey’s outreach needs to be on Independents and Democrats.
As for Schiff’s seat in the House of Representatives, which he’s held for more than 20 years, many candidates are vying to fill it, including California State Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, Republican doctor Alex Balekian, former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, California Senator Anthony Portantino, and more.
Newton says a Democrat would have the edge if facing a Republican for Schiff’s seat, since his district is Democratic, though a little less so after redistricting.
When it comes to Katie Porter’s seat, former California State Assemblyman Scott Baugh, who is a Republican, leads the two Democratic hopefuls: State Senator Dave Min and Joanna Weiss, past president of Women for American Values and Ethics (WAVE) Action Fund.
Newton says a Republican has a real possibility of taking Porter’s seat. “She's really held that by force of her personality over the last couple cycles. It does not skew heavily Democratic and [is a] very evenly divided district.”
In the race for Los Angeles district attorney, incumbent George Gascón has the lead against 11 other candidates. In second place is Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor.
“I think of all the candidates against him, Hochman is the one he'd most like to face, because Hochman ran as a Republican for attorney general just two years ago. And so he's running as an Independent this time. But it's fairly easy to frame this race as a Democrat versus Republican race. And if that's the case, that gives Gascón a lot of room to run with. That said, I would say he's a very vulnerable opponent. And this one could go either way from my perspective,” Newton says.