Democratic Rep. Katie Porter announces she's running for California Senate — and she's not waiting for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to step aside
- Rep. Katie Porter of California on Tuesday officially announced a 2024 Senate bid.
- Sen. Feinstein is up for reelection in 2024, but hasn't yet announced whether she'll run for another term.
Rep. Katie Porter of California — one of the most prominent progressive Democrats in the country — will run for the Senate in 2024.
Porter, a third-term lawmaker who was reelected last November in her Orange County-anchored district, boasts strong ties to leading progressive groups and has molded a profile in Congress as someone who sharply questions powerful business leaders from her perch on the House Oversight Committee.
"In times like these, California needs a warrior in Washington," she said in her official campaign announcement on Tuesday.
"I don't do Congress the way others often do. I use whatever power I have to speak hard truths to the powers that be, to not just challenge the status quo, but call it out, name names, and demand justice," she continued to say. "That goes for taking on Wall Street and the big banks, big oil, and big pharma. It's why I refused to accept corporate PAC and lobbyist campaign money. I don't want it. And I'm leading the fight to ban congressional stock trading because it's just wrong. To win these fights, it's time for new leadership in the Senate."
At the moment, 89-year-old Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein — a former San Francisco mayor who has served in the upper chamber since 1992 — could very well seek reelection.
Feinstein, now in her fifth term, is widely expected to retire after the upcoming 2024 cycle, but she has not yet made a decision on her intentions.
"Everyone is of course welcome to throw their hat in the ring, and I will make an announcement concerning my plans for 2024 at the appropriate time," the senator said in a statement on Tuesday. "Right now I'm focused on ensuring California has all the resources it needs to cope with the devastating storms slamming the state and leaving more than a dozen dead."
In entering the race, Porter is staking out a lane as an lawmaker who would usher in a different sort of governance.
"Change can be electrifying and exhilarating, but change can also be disruptive, like the constant assault on our democracy and the dangerous imbalance in our economy," the lawmaker said in her announcement. "The threat from so-called leaders like Mitch McConnell has too often made the United States Senate the place where rights get revoked, special interests get rewarded, and our democracy gets rigged."
While in the House, Porter has become nationally-known for her use of whiteboards, where she has been unrelenting in grilling chief executives about their business practices — and how they affect consumers.
"I think about the whiteboard as a teaching tool," she told Yahoo Finance in an interview last year. "The American people are owed answers from their government, and the whiteboard is a way to help make it easier for everyday people to understand what Washington is getting done or not getting done to solve their problems."
Porter was first elected to office in 2018, unseating then-Republican Rep. Mimi Walters by four points (52%-48%) in a wave year that saw Democrats win every Orange County-based congressional district. She was reelected in 2020, defeating former Mission Viejo mayor Greg Raths by seven points (53.5%-46.5%).
In November, Porter won a tough reelection race, edging out former California assemblyman Scott Baugh by four points (52%-48%).
Candidates who might compete against Porter in a potential open seat include Rep. Barbara Lee, a liberal icon who represents a district in the San Francisco Bay Area; Rep. Adam Schiff, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who represents a Los Angeles-area district; and Rep. Ro Khanna, a 46-year-old Bay Area progressive who was a national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign.