Two-term Rep. Katie Porter, a progressive Democrat from California identified for grilling company bigwigs earlier than Congress, is projected to win reelection after a tricky problem from Republican Scott Baugh.
Porter rose to nationwide prominence on the House Financial Services Committee, the place she executed viral takedowns of main Wall Street executives along with her whiteboard and marker as a visible assist. The Elizabeth Warren protégé later continued her streak on the Natural Resources Committee, taking over oil and gas executives, incomes hundreds of thousands of views on social media and producing hypothesis about bigger aspirations, together with a doable bid for Senate.
Porter’s 2018 win in California’s forty fifth Congressional District helped Democrats flip Orange County blue, making historical past in what was as soon as a bastion of conservatism that helped catapult each Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the White House. She opted to run for the state’s forty seventh Congressional District after its traces had been redrawn in 2020.
Republicans received again three of Orange County’s 5 seats within the 2020 election. They spent giant sums of cash this yr attempting to win again all of them of their quest to recapture a majority within the House.
Baugh, an legal professional who beforehand served as a state assemblyman and chairman of the Orange County GOP, hoped voters’ dissatisfaction with the state of the economic system would carry him to victory. Like different GOP candidates this yr, Baugh blamed Democrats for prime inflation.
“A lot of the independents are leaning towards the Republican view of life, the American way of life. They don’t want socialism in this country, and I think the coast of Orange County rejects socialism in this country,” Baugh said within the closing days of the race.
Republicans additionally attacked Porter over her subsidized housing arrangement with the University of California, Irvine, campus, the place she labored as a regulation professor previous to going to Congress. The association, although authorized, continued although Porter went on unpaid depart from the varsity. And Republicans sought to tie leaked feedback Porter made criticizing Irvine police over their response to a scuffle that broke out at one in every of her marketing campaign occasions to the “defund the police” motion.
Porter made reproductive rights, local weather motion, client advocacy and company greed massive themes in her bid for a 3rd time period.
“Corporate profits today make up about half of inflation, what we’re paying at the grocery store, that extra $2, $1 of that $2 is corporate profits,” Porter instructed PBS earlier this month. “You know, one of the things they say often is, look, I would welcome Republicans to help with inflation. But all they have done is point the finger. They haven’t offered any solutions.”
Porter’s star energy helped her construct an enormous warfare chest, vastly outraising her GOP opponent and placing her within the high 5 amongst congressional fundraisers.
Preliminary vote data additionally confirmed Porter outrunning each different Democrat on the poll within the Orange County portion of her district, an indication of her resilience in an in any other case robust yr for House Democratic candidates in California.