Porter has received thousands of dollars from large tech companies and Kaiser Permanente
Katie Porter tells Colbert that it’s ‘hard’ to be a member of Congress
Katie Porter, a U.S. Senate Candidate from California, told Stephen Colbert, host of ‘The Late Show,’ that working in Congress was not as glamorous as many Americans thought.
California Democrat Katie Porter took a shot at Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and special interest groups after losing the Senate open primary. She suggested that Schiff’s campaigns spent millions of dollars “peddling lies”, and ultimately boosted Steve Garvey the Republican candidate in the race on Super Tuesday.
Porter, in her Tuesday night concession speech, said that “we’re three to one on TV spending and a flood of billionaires spent millions peddling falsehoods.” “And our opponent is spending more money to promote the Republican campaign than his campaign.”
Porter told reporters just after nine p.m. on Tuesday that “we know we will lose tonight, even though the votes have not yet been counted.” “Our opponents tried everything, including millions of dollars and every trick from the playbook, to knock us down. “But I’m still in high heels.”
She continued, “Because you, the establishment is running scared.”
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) participate in a staged debate with other Democrats running to replace Sen. Diane Feinstein on October 8, 2023, at the Westing Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles.
Porter, a progressive Democrat representing Orange County in the US since 2019, said later in her speech that she had “never even considered” running for public office “until Donald Trump was elected in 2016”. Porter, a progressive Democrat who has been representing Orange County since 2019, said in her speech that she “never considered” running for office “until [Donald] Trump was elected” in 2016.
Porter has herself received millions of dollars in donations from large donors to help her campaign, despite her boasting that she had never accepted corporate PAC funds. According to federal disclosures, she has accepted thousands of dollar donations from Wall Street bigwigs.
Open Secrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks political campaigns, also reports that Porter received just under $50,000 in PAC contributions, over $32,000 each from Apple and Google, and more than $58,000 from the Universities of California San Francisco, Irvine, and just under $16,000 collectively from Kaiser Permanente.
Rep. Adam Schiff left, and Steve Garvey are likely to face off against one another in California’s Senate election in November.
Porter’s Senate campaign raised slightly less than $28 million, trailing Schiff’s $31 million. Rep. Barbara Lee raised $4 million and Garvey, a Republican, just over $2 million. California’s system of primary elections means that the two top candidates from the primary will compete in the November general election.
A Washington Post article from last month stated that Porter also redirected a minimum of half a million dollars in ads against another GOP candidate, Eric Early. He described him as “100% pro-Trump” and “way more dangerous than Steve Garvey.”
Dianne Feinstein held the highly-contested seat for over 30 years before she died in 2017. This prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint Democrat Senator Laphonza Butler as the new occupant of the vacancy.
Schiff, a Burbank Democrat who has been a congressman since 2001 and a Burbank Democrat, spent millions on ads describing Garvey, a conservative far-right, as someone “who voted twice for Trump and supported Republicans over the years.”
It was a move to eliminate Porter and Lee, who were seen as potential rivals to Schiff. This would have given Schiff a better chance of winning in the general election than splitting the vote among Democrats within the deep-blue bastion.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., passed away last year.
Garvey will be facing Schiff in the fall. Schiff is expected to win but Garvey stated during his speech of victory on Tuesday that “They say we’re going strike out in the general elections.” This is the group that believes in maintaining the status quo.
Schiff’s victory speech, which was interrupted by protesters who called for a ceasefire in the Israel/Palestine conflict said: “We are lucky, lucky to live in a democracy, where we have the right to all protest.”
He said, “We’re so lucky to be living in such a democracy. We want to keep it.”
