Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) launched a Senate campaign on Tuesday, inadvertently announcing she might be eyeing Sen. Dianne Feinstein‘s seat.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1444964
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1444964
I’m not too sure about this announcement and the timing of it. I like Porter, but she’s very useful where she is, and she represents a district that is pretty easily flipped.
I also wasn’t into that performative book reading during voting.
But I emphasize, I like Porter.
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With Katie Porter–you Californians have plum choices.
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She’s one of my favourite Dems and I hoped she might go for the Senate. This is great news.
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On the whole, I think that potential candidates are much too deferential to incumbents (probably on both sides). This is healthy and I wish we saw more of it.
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This is a polite and gentle nudge out the door with an implication that Feinstein could be replaced in the primaries. Feinstein has been a good senator but her mental disabilities clearly make retaining her seat untenable. Porter would make a great successor.
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I could see her teaming with Elizabeth Warren to rain holy hell on predatory financial practices. (I’m looking at you, Wells Fargo.)
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This gives the Dems time to look for a good replacement for her seat. I remember it as a close run race. That being said, I love this news.
Send Katy and her white board to the Senate!!!
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This kind of shuts down Adam Schiff’s rumored run it might seem. Or at least makes things a little more interesting.
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Thanks for your service Mrs. Feinstein, but it’s time to retire. Actually it would have been better to have retired before hugging Lindsay Graham for accomplishing the confirmation of the Justice that was going to take women’s right to abortion.
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This is not at all correct. It’s Orange County, and it has taken a great deal of hard work to keep that seat in her hands since she flipped it in 2018. After redistricting last year, she only won reelection by about 3 points.
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This is a good move by Representative Porter. It positions her well if Diane Feinstein wisely decides to retire before her term ends and Gavin Newsom needs to make an appointment. She is a very capable individual who will do well in the general.
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It never made sense to me for Schiff to run for Senate. He’s 62 years old, he’s one of the most senior members in the House caucus, and he can pretty much chair any committee he likes when the Dems return to the majority. Throwing that all away for a chance at being the junior senator from California would be weird.
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Remember - top 2 primary here in California so it could be 2 Dems in the general or if too many Dems enter and fracture the field, 2 credible Republicans could advance to November. But could also mean a Porter/Schiff general. Way too early.
As this regards Feinstein, she has reacted very strongly in public when people suggest it’s time she retires, so my guess is there is a consensus that she needs to be more than gently pushed to that point. I do not see how she could actively campaign for this seat against diligent opposition such as Porter. She debated de Leon in 2018 once and that was the first time she had done a general election debate since the 90s and it’s not like she had primary opposition. She will not actively contest things this time around - my guess is that once polls show her trailing, she’ll announce retirement. The interesting twist would be whether she would leave early and allow Newsom to appoint a replacement. That would probably prejudice Porter’s chances just because Dem leadership would probably not prefer a special in her seat.
So, I can see Schiff announcing too in short order and maybe Khanna. And then there will be talk of Dems boxing themselves out for the general.
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Besides being doddering, Feinstein is far to the right of most Californians on the issues that matter most, IMO, including climate and weath inequality.
Porter could be the champion the country needs California to provide.
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This is great news. Porter is a fantastic politician who enjoys the absolute trust of the base and has great potential as a national leader.
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I have no expertise but love Porter and wish Feinstein a good retirement.
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Agree with what a lot of folks on here have said already @txlawyer and @mondfledermaus among them. Dems need to start promoting some pols who are not currently of retirement age (for the rest of us working folks). When Schiiff looks young at 62 that tells you something. Feinstein has been at best passable for a CA senator, given her hawk/intel takes and the previously noted canoodling with Lindsey. With what Porter has done in O.C. one would think a moderately competent party apparatus could find a good replacement for her seat to muster that +3 margin again. While I appreciate what Schumer and Pelosi and Hoyer have done most of the time, the failure to bring along new blood during the Obama years has been deleterious to the current fortunes of the party, I think.
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