Lee, Schiff, & Porter to Face Off in California Senate Race

There are still about 11 months until California’s 2024 primaries, but now we may know all the key players in the highly anticipated Democratic battle to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the Senate. Silicon Valley congressman Ro Khanna, who was seen as a possible Senate candidate, announced on Sunday that he is endorsing his Oakland colleague Barbara Lee, and will co-chair her campaign. Barring the emergence of an unexpected major contender, that means three Democratic members of the U.S. House are running to succeed Feinstein: Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff.

Khanna’s decision helps Lee in multiple ways. First, he may be able to bring some fundraising skills to Lee’s campaign, which in the early going is struggling to keep up with Porter and Schiff’s fundraising operations. In a state with as many expensive media markets as California, underfunded statewide candidates lose, period. Second, Khanna’s national progressive connections via his highly visible involvement in Bernie Sanders’s two presidential campaigns could help consolidate lefty support behind a candidate who is already a legend in those circles (a legend who is gaining fresh attention now that Congress may repeal the 2001 authorization of military force that Lee uniquely opposed). Third, if the Democratic field is now complete, Lee will be the only candidate from north of Los Angeles, and the only Democratic candidate of color.

You have to go back to Gray Davis’s 1998 gubernatorial campaign to find a Democrat from Southern California who won a statewide primary for governor or senator, and his governorship did not end well. And there’s been something of a national demand for a Black woman in the U.S. Senate to replace Vice President…