The race for California’s coveted Senate seat has begun, and it’s shaping up to be an expensive and ugly battle between the two top political fundraisers in the House chamber.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who announced his bid for the Senate seat on Thursday, has been joined by Rep. Kathy Porter, D-Calif., in the race against Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89. In the year Up for re-election in 2024. Feinstein has yet to announce her re-election bid.
Porter, a progressive star and former student of Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, raised an estimated $25 million in political donations in the last round, making her the second-highest raising member of the House behind House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Porter’s fundraising total beat that of her boss, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a famous fundraiser in her own right.
Schiff was the fourth-highest member of the House last year, taking in more than $23 million for re-election from 2021 to November 2022.
California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff is running for the Senate seat held by Feinstein.
Porter and her political ambitions may be hampered by accusations of racist comments and promoting a toxic work culture, even as Porter tries to position herself as a progressive “warrior.”
A former staffer for the California Democrat says the congresswoman made lewd and racist comments to her staff and “people made fun of her for delaying sexual harassment.” The lawsuit was announced in December, but the news was largely ignored by mainstream news outlets.
Schiff, the leader of the impeachment inquiry into former President Donald Trump, faces his own partisan controversy. Hours after Schiff announced his run for the U.S. Senate, a progressive group attacked Congress over Trump’s record.
“Adam Schiff has played the role of Trump’s adversary on TV, but a recent book details how he stopped and thwarted leaders trying to hold Trump accountable in Congress. And he will never oppose corporations or democratic institutions,” Adam Green, founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), said in a statement Thursday.
Schiff faces ethics complaint for using Trump impeachment video in Senate campaign
Not long after, the ethics watchdog group called on the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate Schiff for using footage from the Senate floor in a campaign ad video. The California Progressives “misappropriated official resources for political purposes,” the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (Foundation) said in a complaint filed Friday.
California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, 76, has said she plans to run for Feinstein’s seat as well, but has not made an official statement.
Some have speculated that Democratic Rep. Ro Canna, who represents California’s Silicon Valley, may also throw his hat in the ring for Feinstein’s seat.
California uses a system called a wildcard primary, in which the two candidates, regardless of their party, are the two candidates for the general election early primaries in the 2024 general election, where a Democrat-Democrat showdown is highly possible.
Fox News’ Houston Keane contributed to this report.