By Kathryn Palmer
USA Today
The three Democrats and one Republican vying for California’s first open Senate seat in decades met onstage Monday in a lively debate dominated by divisions over Donald Trump, the Israel-Hamas war and campaign finance.
Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter traded barbs with Republican Steve Garvey — and each other — just two weeks before primary mail-in ballots are set to hit millions of Californians’ mailboxes. With Schiff firmly in the lead with steady polling numbers and a massive $35 million war chest, other candidates jockeyed for second place, with Porter landing some of the most pointed blows of the evening at her primary Democratic competitor, Schiff, and at the sole Republican on stage.
“Once a Dodger, always a dodger,” Porter said to wide audience applause, in response to Garvey’s sidestepping direct questions of his loyalty to Trump.
Democrats seek to differentiate their campaigns
Bob Shrum, director of University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future, a debate co-sponsor, said the evening made clear what each candidate’s strategy is going forward. That includes how the three Democrats, who all have very similar voting records, plan to differentiate themselves from each other as the race shuttles toward March 5 primaries.
“Schiff wants to be the guy who stood up to Trump and gets things done, while Barbara Lee wants to be the most progressive candidate, although she’s in competition with Katie Porter, who was really willing to go after both Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey,” Shrum said. “Garvey’s dilemma is that he wants to solidify the Republican vote so that he gets out of the primary into the top two.”
Porter stuck to her credo as a reformer known the internet-over for her plucky whiteboard lectures of CEOs and officials, proclaiming herself the only candidate to not take corporate PAC money. She directed sharp criticism toward Schiff on the topic of campaign financing, at one point telling him, “I didn’t realize how much dirty money you took until I was running against you.”
The four taking the stage qualified through a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll in December, grabbing the top spots in a race that has drawn over two dozen additional candidates. The debate, moderated by Fox 11 News anchor Elex Michaelson and POLITICO reporter Melanie Mason, gave candidates a chance to share their positions with voters on a range of state concerns, such as housing affordability, agriculture and climate policies, though hot-button national issues took center stage.
Garvey, Porter vie for important second place
Though California is so thoroughly blue it is sometimes relegated as an aberration from national conversations, the most central issues cutting through the Senate race are those guiding elections up and down the ballot and across the country. Candidates clashed over the Israel-Hamas War, abortion access, cost of living and the specter of a second Trump presidency.
For Garvey, a celebrity former baseball star and political newcomer, Monday marked his first high-profile appearance in front of voters. Many political experts are watching him closely, as Garvey and Porter grapple for second place.
“Garvey probably has the smallest chance of being elected to the Senate of any of any of the candidates on the stage, but he was still the most important person in the debate,” said longtime political analyst Dan Schnur. “There aren’t nearly enough Republicans in California to elect a statewide candidate,” Schnur said. “But there’s just enough to get a Republican into the runoff.”
It was a performance marked by vague answers, an appeal to common sense and compassion, and at times an unwillingness to disclose policy positions even when pressed by moderators and his Democratic competitors. California’s primary is a top-two system, making an interparty Democratic fight likely, though Garvey’s efforts to consolidate Republican support has led some political experts to believe a Schiff-Garvey showdown is not outside the realm of possibility.
“Garvey did better than I expected, but California does love an outsider with a little celebrity flash,” said political communications expert Kassy Perry, recalling her time working with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appealed to voters despite, and sometimes because of, his political inexperience.
Republicans make up less than one-quarter of California’s registered electorate, and support for Trump can be a poison pill among the state’s moderate conservatives. All three Democrats roundly criticized Garvey for voting for Trump twice, and repeatedly pushed the former athlete to make clear whether he still supports the former president. Solidifying her role as one of the most fierce debaters on stage, alongside Lee, Porter laid into Garvey for his roundabout responses.
“He just chewed two and a half minutes of the time to talk about substantive issues in this debate, and refused to answer the question,” Porter said following a back-and-forth over Trump. “Ballots go out in six weeks, Garvey, this is not the minor leagues. Who will you vote for?”
The ever-present shadow of the former president guided the debate’s Democratic front runner as well. Schiff touted his role as one of the Democratic party’s chief Trump antagonizers, rising to national fame as the lead prosecutor in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. In a testament to Schiff’s lead in polls and campaign fundraising, the 12-term congressman was the most commanding presence on the stage, often times staying out of squabbles from Lee and Porter, who both came out swinging.
Candidates spar over Israel-Hamas war
Yet one of the most lighting-rod divisions in current U.S. politics, that of the Israel-Hamas war, played out primarily between the three Democrats. Lee has come out as ardently in favor of an immediate cease-fire, arguing a cessation of hostilities was needed before political solutions could be met. Porter, on the other hand, called for a “permanent cease-fire,” but on a conditional basis, telling Lee that “cease-fire is not a magic word. You can’t say it and make it so.”
Garvey pledged support for Israel, “whatever their needs,” while Schiff continued his call for a two-state solution but did not express support for a cease-fire.
“I think Gaza represents Lee’s best opportunity and possibly only opportunity to make the runoff,” Schnur said. “Porter seems somewhat caught in between the two others. Schiff is a full throated Israel supporter, Lee has taken a much more aggressive stance on a ceasefire, and Porter’s position is somewhere in between.”
Recent polls show Californians are sharply split on the Israel-Hamas war, which track with generational and ideological lines as well.
What’s next? Another pre-primary debate
The top four candidates will have another forum to pitch themselves to California voters in three weeks, at the second pre-primary debate slated for Feb. 12. Los Angeles news station KTLA 5 and its parent company, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., announced today the event will be moderated by Inside California Politics hosts Frank Buckley and Nikki Laurenzo, and is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Kathryn Palmer is the California 2024 Elections Fellow for USA TODAY. Reach her at kapalmer@gannett.com and follow her on X @KathrynPlmr.