Schiff, Garvey Face Off at The U.S. Senate Candidate Forum In Glendale

The first California U.S. Senate candidate forum was held at the Grand Central Air Terminal Museum in Glendale on Tuesday, with former baseball star Steve Garvey (R) facing off against Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for the seat held by the late Senator Diane Feinstein for the first time one on one.

Since Garvey and Schiff won the Primary back in March, Schiff has a significant lead in polls, with Garvey only polling around the mid-30s. However, with less than a month to go before the election, and with undecided voters still in double digit percentages, both candidates are still fighting for last minute surges, with Garvey hoping to be the first GOP Senate candidate to get above 40% in decades.

On Tuesday they met in Glendale where the two were fired questions by KABC Los Angeles anchor Marc Brown, KGO San Francisco anchor Kristen Sze, KFSN anchor Warren Armstrong, and Univision Los Angeles anchor Gabriella Teissier. The Globe was there as well during the hour long event, and the issues covered pretty much every hot button issue out there.

For the most part, both candidates didn’t make it a debate and simply kept to the forum question and answer format. But on a few issues, such as healthcare, they launched into each other, with Schiff repeatedly trying to tie in Garvey to Trump, and Garvey saying again and again how Schiff did nothing substantial while in Congress for 24 years. At one point early on, Schiff even said, “We have a dictator trying to become president,” only for Garvey to give a Reaganesque response of “There you go again.”

For the first question on Gun Control, the moderators pointed out how Feinstein was big on the issue and what their individual stances on it were.

Garvey said “I believe in the second amendment, I have sympathy for victims of the shootings.” But he also then said he would support more stringent background checks. Meanwhile, Schiff responded, attacking the NRA, supporting an assault weapons ban and more gun control.

Environmental and water issues were also highlighted. Schiff generally was more in support of environmental regulations and said that fighting climate change should take focus on these matters. He mentioned meeting Californians who couldn’t get house insurance because of the high fire risk, and that more renewable energy, and better technology to fight fires more effectively was needed. He even pointed out backing legislation in Congress to allow night time helicopter drops of water battling the U.S. Forest service to allow it. He also said more efficient ways to use and recycle water were needed.

Schiff and Garvey on the issues

In contrast, Garvey said that that water was critical, saying that “Water is the platinum, oil is the gold.” He pointed out that environmentalists needed to work with farmers and those in cities to create solution, something Schiff later also supported. Schiff was also a target for Garvey, with Garvey saying that Schiff hasn’t budged the issue since coming into office in Congress.

“Over these 24 years Schiff hasn’t been able to do anything about it. He can’t cure any of the problems.” responded Garvey.

Abortion proved more heated. While Garvey said he was Catholic and supported the right for abortions if it was the voice of Californians, Schiff went a step further and said he supported a national right for abortions, saying that Californians wanted a national right to reproductive freedoms. Garvey soon volleyed back saying “He believes democracy packing the court and deconstruction of the constitution. He is about doing away and downplaying the second amendment.” This caused Schiff to say over the interjecting moderator “Californians aren’t looking for some MAGA mini-me in a baseball uniform.”

Israel was also contentious. While both candidates supported Israel and called them an ally, Schiff went as far as to say that Americans overseas needed to be protected and that a two-state solution was the only way for peace. Garvey mentioned his recent Israel trip about he was to all the sites linked to the October 7th massacre and visited families of hostages. He then blamed the Obama and Biden administrations for giving money to Iran and stated “There will never be a two state solution, as one will try to decimate the other.”

By topic, the most questions were about cost of living and housing. Garvey once again said that Schiff didn’t solve these problems while in Congress and only threw money at the problem. When it comes to housing, he said that it should be treated as a local not federal issue and stressed that tariffs aren’t the answer to higher costs, but only a protectionary measure when countries like China cheapen their products to be at a competitive advantage over the U.S.

Schiff agreed with Garvey about targeted tariffs, but said that Trump’s tariffs went too far. He also disagreed about housing being a local issue, saying that federal incentive should be added in. Schiff went so far as to say that “Housing is a human right” and “My top priority is to bring more affordable housing into California.” To help solve this, he proposed a renters tax credit similar to how homeowners could write off part of their mortgage, as well as expand Section 8 vouchers and make it so that landlords could not turn those away with them.

Heated exchanges

Another big issue was the border issue. Schiff said that the U.S. needed to control the border with more personnel and more technology. However, he also said that, instead of deportations, a comprehensive immigration policy was needed to treat them as people and give them a better chance at citizenship. In response, Garvey said that the current administration has supported an open border for the past 4 years, and that the U.S. needed to not only secure the border, but finish off the wall. Illegal immigrants needed to be detained. At one point, Garvey even said it was an “existential crisis at the border created by Biden.”

Schiff then quickly noted that “I never voted for open borders, but you voted for Donald Trump and mass deportations,” only for Garvey to respond by saying “One of the two people here are honest and straight forward and you’re looking at him. I’m not like that.”

Other issues during the night were straight forward. On AI, Schiff wanted for tech jobs in California, but said that AI needed to be regulated with workers being unionized. Garvey said that AI was the future, but time was needed to see how it affected individuals. Who their picks for president wasn’t a surprise either: Harris for Schiff and Trump for Garvey, but with the latter saying that everyone had been trying to “paint him into a corner” for the past year over it.

When it came to stopping fentanyl, they were surprisingly close policy-wise. Garvey called for securing the border, and then going after China and Mexico for their roles in having it brought to the U.S. Schiff simply added that ports should also be a main point of interdiction by authorities. But then again, when it came to abolishing the filibuster, they were polar opposites. Garvey said that it was a “Vibrant way for minority way to have an opinion.” and that Schiff was trying to deconstruct the constitution and pack the Supreme Court to get around it. Schiff countered that the filibuster needed to be abolished to restore voting rights, bring immigration reform and limits on gun rights, as well as protect reproductive rights.

As of Tuesday night, both candidates received criticism for the forum. Garvey was noted to have wavered at many times with odd pauses, with Schiff remarking at one point “Look, I left him speechless.” He also repeated many of his points, such as “packing the Supreme Court” and “deconstructing the Constitution” over half a dozen times. Schiff, meanwhile, was a sharper speaker thanks to over two decades in the House, but with many of his responses called “robotic” or “without feeling” during the forum. While well rehearsed, he also went after Garvey personally several times, with Garvey even mentioning it during an early retort in the forum. Schiff also engaged in name calling, like calling him a “MAGA mini-me in a baseball uniform”, something that Garvey never did.

Overall, the forum laid down exactly where they both were on several key issues and showed Californians what they were about. Both candidates also hoped to reach the undecided voters in the state.

As of Tuesday, it is unknown if another forum or if a debate will be held later this month.