Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Republican Steve Garvey are projected to advance in California’s top-two “jungle” primary contest, putting one of Donald Trump’s biggest antagonists in the House in a commanding position to win a Senate seat in one of the nation’s bluest states.
Progressive Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), meanwhile, split the vote on the left and failed to make the runoff, a setback that is already generating finger-pointing within progressive circles about failures to consolidate around a single candidate in contested primaries.
Schiff, who rose to national prominence as an impeachment manager during Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in the Senate following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters, is viewed as a more moderate Democrat who has the backing of much of the party establishment, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
The Los Angeles-area congressman made protecting democracy a key focus of his campaign, highlighting his role on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack and Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The position earned him lots of headlines and millions of dollars in campaign contributions, which in turn helped him blanket the notoriously expensive ad markets of California in televised spots.
Schiff’s campaign also spent heavily to elevate Garvey, a former baseball star, in conservative media in hopes of boosting his appeal and ensuring that Schiff faces an easily beatable Republican candidate in the bluest of blue states instead of Porter. The Orange County congresswoman called the tactic “brazenly cynical” and accused Schiff of seeking to keep a woman out of the runoff.
“Adam Schiff put his own selfishness above democracy by lifting up Republican Steve Garvey, who will now turn…
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