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Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff easily defeated former L.A. Dodgers star Steve Garvey. Although millions of ballots are likely yet to be counted, the Associated Press declared Schiff the winner over his Republican opponent shortly after polls closed Tuesday night.
Schiff, 64, was first elected to represent Los Angeles in 2000 when he defeated a Republican incumbent. He also vastly outraised his Republican opponent in this year’s election, a political newcomer with little experience raising campaign dollars. The 75-year-old Garvey never really got any momentum against Schiff, whose national profile rose during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Schiff actually won two elections Tuesday — one to fill out the remaining months of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein’s term, the other for a full six-year term beginning in January 2025. The outcome means that after having two women representing California in the U.S. Senate for decades, the state will have two male senators for the first time since 1992, with Schiff joining fellow Democrat Alex Padilla in the upper chamber of Congress.
In the March primary, Schiff and Garvey beat out two women Democrats: Rep. Katie Porter from Orange County and Oakland’s Rep. Barbara Lee, who both finished out of the top two. Democrat Laphonza Butler, who Gov. Gavin Newsom named to replace Feinstein after she died last year, declined to run for the seat.
Schiff spent millions of his own money in the March primary on ads saying Garvey “voted for Trump, twice, and supported Republicans for years, including far right conservatives.” While that might have seemed like an attack on Garvey, it was actually intended as a signal to Republicans that Garvey was their candidate.
The gambit worked; Schiff divided up the Democratic vote with Porter and Lee and headed to the November runoff with Garvey. The strategy allowed Schiff to essentially choose his fall opponent — and avoid facing off against another Democrat. Polls showed Rep. Porter could have been a real contender for the seat had she made it past the March primary.
Today’s election outcome means that after years of having two senators with decades of all-important seniority — Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who retired in 2016 — both Padilla and Schiff will have to lobby Senate leadership for appointments to powerful committees.
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