LOS ANGELES – U.S. Rep. Katie Porter was a social media famous person by way of brandishing a white board at congressional hearings to dissect CEOs and destroy down complicated figures into attacks on company greed, a signature symbol that propelled the Democrat’s U.S. Senate candidacy in California.
This time, her numbers didn’t upload up.
The revolutionary favourite identified for spotlighting her football mother, minivan-driving house existence used to be trounced in Tuesday’s number one election to fill the seat as soon as held by way of the overdue Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, completing a long way in the back of Republican Steve Garvey and fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
Another established Democrat, Rep. Barbara Lee, completed even farther in the back of and can abandon her House seat at the finish of the time period. But it is Porter’s departure from an up-for-grabs swing district in Southern California that might value the celebration dearly in the fierce combat for regulate of the U.S. House.
Porter did not cross down quietly. She instantly pointed a finger at “billionaires spending millions to rig this election.” That declare resulted in a brutal social media backlash from many that had been glad to depict the congresswoman as a graceless loser.
“Can we stop trying to excuse every loss with the term ‘rig’ or ‘rigged’?” veteran Florida Democratic operative Steve Schale wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Some likened her bitter words to former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in 2020 — not a kind comparison to make in Democratic circles.
The episode represented a messy coda to what once was seen as a top-shelf campaign likely headed for the November ballot. Instead, she is now dealing with stinging fallout from the loss and her reaction to it, and facing an uncertain future after her House term expires in early January.
Perhaps chastened by the criticism, Porter later clarified her initial statement to say she didn’t believe the California vote count or election process had been compromised, but she didn’t recant her earlier remarks. Rigged, she said in a follow-up, “means manipulated by dishonest means.”
Porter, known as a small-dollar fundraiser and a self-styled guardian of the middle class, was the first major candidate to enter the race in January 2023. At the time, she promised to be a “warrior” in Washington who would take on big banks, Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry.
As for her future, political watchers in California say Porter could end up somewhere in the Biden administration, on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s staff or perhaps be a candidate for another statewide office in 2026 — the race for governor is wide open. She was a consumer protection attorney before her election to the House, and her knack for wringing common-sense answers from questions that become clouded by political haze remains a marketable skill.
In what might not be a coincidence, Porter’s campaign began raising money for President Joe Biden on Friday, urging her supporters in an email to “donate, knock (on) doors, make calls” to get the president reelected.
“I do think it will blow over,” said veteran Democratic consultant Roger Salazar. He called her rigged-election claims a “heat-of-the-moment” reaction to the millions of dollars spent against her by super political action committees.
That’s pretty much the line Porter has taken. She faults outside spending for costing her a chance at the seat, hinting that she became a target after taking on powerful forces.
“As we’ve seen in this campaign, they spend millions to defeat someone who will dilute their influence and disrupt the status quo,” she wrote on X.
But Democratic strategists believe she made strategic mistakes that contributed to her downfall.
Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta said Porter’s steady attacks on Schiff probably alienated Democratic base voters who admire the congressman, who had been a leading voice in two Trump impeachments.
“Being the angry outsider is the role Republicans usually play,” Acosta said. “It doesn’t play with Democratic base voters.”
Porter said Schiff’s ads spotlighting Garvey’s conservative credentials by directing criticism mainly at him — in a kind of a carom shot that boosted his visibility among Republican and right-leaning voters — were a “brazenly cynical” attempt to box out female candidates. In other words, her and Lee.
Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc., a research firm that closely tracks voting trends and works with Democrats, independent candidates and academics, said Porter was simply outmaneuvered. With a large fundraising advantage, he said, Schiff was able to define the race as a contest between him and the Republican Garvey.
To the reasonable voter “a two-person race makes a lot more sense,” Mitchell said. “It strengthened both of their brands.” A one-on-one contest is “the most easily digestible narrative in American politics.”
On X, Porter wrote that “we had the establishment running scared — withstanding 3-to-1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.”
“Special interests like politics as it is today because they control the politicians,” she wrote.
But Acosta and others mentioned practices bemoaned by way of Porter — a candidate looking to raise a probably weaker opponent, or political teams with little duty spending thousands and thousands — are common.
It’s “indicative of the world we live in today,” Acosta said, adding that the days of polite concession speeches are over.
“Now, they throw a fit and blame the system,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, Porter left some Democrats rankled about the House seat she needed to comply with vacate to run for the Senate. It’s in risk of being seized by way of Republicans in November, with regulate of the carefully divided chamber on the line.
Democratic state Sen. Dave Min will face Republican Scott Baugh in the aggressive forty seventh District in Orange County, which each events see as a very powerful to their possibilities of successful a majority.
When an incumbent steps out of a aggressive district “it goes from relatively safe to up in the air,” famous Salazar. “The House is so tight … you don’t want to lose an opportunity.”
The prospect of dropping a key House seat resulted in a number of angsty feedback on X, many framed in the roughly blunt phrases Porter has lengthy been identified for.
“Katie,” one commenter wrote, “you threw away your seat.”
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This subject matter is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.