Last Updated on February 24, 2024 by BVN
Breanna Reeves
With less than a week away from the primary elections, four U.S. Senate candidates participated in a final debate hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52 before voters head to the polls on March 5.
The senate race has garnered much attention following the death of California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein last year. This race marks the state’s first open race for a Senate seat since Feinstein was first elected in 1992. Feinstein, the nation’s longest-serving woman senator, died at age 90. Though Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to replace Feinstein and complete the term, Butler stated early on that she would not run for a full Senate term in 2024.
With 22 candidates competing to become California’s next senator, four candidates have emerged as frontrunners: Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, former L.A. Dodgers baseball player and Republican Steve Garvey, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee.
According to a new statewide survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Schiff is leading the race with 24% of voter support, followed by Porter with 19% and Garvey with 18%. Lee falls behind with 10% of voter support. Only the top two candidates with the most votes will be on the November ballot.
Prior to the televised debate hosted on Feb. 20, most of the candidates had participated in forums hosted by ethnic communities including the Latino Community Foundation and Spanish-language network Univision and Ethnic Media Services (EMS).
Earlier this month EMS and California Black Media hosted a live virtual U.S. Senate forum where frontrunner candidates were invited. While invited, Garvey was the only candidate of the four not in attendance.
During the forum, candidates gave short speeches about their history and qualifications before being asked questions from media representatives on the virtual forum.
Meet Senate candidate Barbara Lee
Lee has been a U.S. representative from California since 1998. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, Lee shared details about her background including being a survivor of domestic violence, a former business owner and a recipient of a master’s degree in social work. Lee has been endorsed by the California Working Families Party and Black Women Organized for Political Action PAC.
“There’s a real concern among Black women about their voices being heard. As we know, Black women are the most loyal voting bloc in the Democratic Party — over 91% voted for President Biden in the last election,” said Tanu Henry, managing editor of California Black Media. “How will you ensure their voices continue to be heard in our national debates and their perspectives considered in national policymaking?”
Henry posed this question to each candidate, beginning with Lee. As the vice chair of the Equality Caucus, Lee explained that she was placed in that role as a result of her fighting for equality and fighting to fix democracy for people of color, for African Americans and for the LGBTQ plus community.
“Black women fight for everyone,” Lee said. “So, it’s important that I be in the Senate to have that perspective and that lens that would be missing in the United States Senate.”
Meet Senate candidate Adam Schiff
When the same question was posed to Schiff, he shared that in his role as Intelligence Committee Chair he noticed that the committee was “very white, very male” and worked to diversify committee staff across other agencies. Beyond diversifying committees, Schiff wants to ensure equitable access to services in the state including health care and equitable distribution of resources.
Schiff is a husband and father of two who grew up in Alamo, CA. Prior to his move to politics, Schiff worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles as a federal prosecutor and prosecuted a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. Schiff has been a U.S. representative since 2001 and serves as a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary. Schiff is endorsed by United Farm Workers and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
During the EMS live forum, Schiff also addressed environmental injustices that disproportionately impact communities of color throughout the state, emphasizing the Inland Empire.
“I’m going to fight — when I bring back resources to California — to make sure that those resources are equitably distributed, that they go to communities of color, that when we’re dealing with the environment, we’re also dealing with environmental injustices in places like the Inland Empire where you have warehouse built on top of warehouse built on top of warehouse in very suburban and urban areas,” Schiff said.
Meet Senate candidate Katie Porter
In response to Henry’s question, Porter first began by applauding the work of Butler in her role as Feinstein’s replacement.
“There is no doubt that our next senator needs to be a champion for communities of color, particularly for Black Americans,” Porter said.
Before Porter joined Congress, she practiced law and studied consumer protection law under now U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Porter then went on to become a “consumer protection advocate.” Porter is a single mother to three school-aged children and is known for using a whiteboard in Congress to get her points across.
Porter addressed California’s affordable housing crisis, and shared her intent on ensuring that the federal government invests in affordable homeownership and works to “undo the harms of racist redlining policies.”
“I think we deserve a senator who doesn’t just talk about our democracy. We need a leader who is active to strengthen our democracy; showing as I have, that a grassroots army can defeat corporate special interests,” Porter said.
According to the PPIC survey, Schiff has the most voter support in the San Francisco Bay Area (32%) and Los Angeles County (26%). Porter’s support is highest in her own district of Orange County and San Diego County (29%). Garvey has the most support in Orange and San Diego Counties (25%), the Inland Empire (24%) and the Central Valley (21%). The survey did not offer voter support data for Lee.
As the primary election draws closer, voters will decide which two candidates will advance to the general election in November. As of now, Schiff and Porter lead with the highest percentage of support among voters, followed by Garvey who is the only Republican candidate among the four leading candidates.