Katie Porter Walks Back Claim that U.S. Senate Primary Was ‘Rigged’

During a “Pod Save America” podcast released Tuesday, Congresswoman and former U.S. Senate candidate Katie Porter (D-CA) said that she regretted saying that the U.S. Senate primary election on March 5th was “rigged,” following major backlash from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

For most of the Senate primary campaign, from early 2023 until late 2023, Porter was widely expected to be the candidate to advance with Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the primary. She put millions into the race and was drawing in many young and progressive voters. However, following the entrance of former baseball star Steve Garvey (R) into the race in October, Porter gradually declined in the polls.

By December, Garvey was beating her in the polls.

In January and February, Porter was sinking even further, with most media outlets predicting a Schiff-Garvey November election. Porter charged that Schiff ads, which labeled Garvey as the main candidate, gave the Republican more credence and charged up the GOP base. With all other sides denying the allegations and saying that all ads were fair game, Porter came out with her own attack ads, trying to boost Republican lawyer candidate Eric Early (R) in retaliation.

However, by March, Porter was woefully behind in the polls. A poll by UC Berkeley only a few days before the election had Garvey 6 points ahead of Porter, 25% to 19%.  On election day, the divide was even greater than anyone realized.

Immediate results had Schiff coming in with 33%, Garvey with 32%, and Porter in a distant third with 14% of the vote. Even after two weeks of tabulating ballots as they come in, total vote percentages have changed very little despite a majority of the remaining votes being counted. As of Tuesday afternoon, Schiff and Garvey are within 5,000 votes of each other in a virtual tie of 31.7%, while Porter remains far behind in third with 15.3%.

The initial results in the first few days irked Porter, who went on an X/Twitter and media blitz accusing that the election had been rigged in favor of Schiff and Garvey to shut her out.

Please find a statement from me below. pic.twitter.com/as8H2cHWL8

— Katie Porter (@katieporteroc) March 7, 2024

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers quickly called Porter out on her comments. She became a pariah overnight, with many of her own supporters dumbfounded with her comments. While Porter made some efforts to try and defend herself, she was widely ridiculed in the following weeks.

After two weeks of pressure, Porter finally said on a podcast on Tuesday that she regretted using the word “rigged” and accusing state election officials of wrongdoing while also saying that the way money was donated for ads in the race made it impossible in the last few months to know exactly where the money was coming for ads.

“So, obviously, I wish I had chosen a different word, because what happened with the controversy was it took away from two really important truths,” Porter said on Pod Save America. “Election officials in California are competent and law-abiding. I want to really make clear that at no time in, in no way would I ever suggest that there’s anything other than a careful, thoughtful, amazing election system that actually should be the model for a lot of the country, in my opinion.”

“The second truth that is really important that got lost in all of that is that big money does influence our elections. Outcomes are manipulated and distorted when you have people coming in spending millions and millions of dollars at the last minute and that money is not disclosed until after the election so people don’t know about it. These are people who are not necessarily interested in making sure Democrats have the majority.”

“When you have people coming in spending millions and millions of dollars at the last minute, and that money is not disclosed until after the election so people don’t know about it, they can’t take it into account when they vote.”

NEW: “I wish I had chosen a different word.” —@RepKatiePorter on calling the California Senate primary election “rigged” and dark money in campaigns

Full interview: https://t.co/anrslZFIEp pic.twitter.com/Ve23Bm4Lw2

— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) March 19, 2024

Reaction to Porter’s appearance on the show was generally not favorable. Once again, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle lambasted Porter, with many of the top comments on X saying that she should have stuck to her House race rather than go for a statewide election.

“Porter could have handled this intelligently and with grace if she didn’t go for the knee-jerk reaction,” Stephanie Lewis, a pollster in Southern California, told the Globe.” You know, election night, thank your supporters, congratulate Schiff, then the next day go on about campaign funding issues. There’s a way to do this and still get your message across and keep your supporters for the next election. By saying rigged and saying that she was boxed out again and again despite there being no evidence for it, she’s just burning bridges.”

“She’s just not used to losing and went into this election thinking she would make it to at least November. She didn’t put up her House seat for nothing, but she didn’t expect Schiff to be so popular and get the spotlight with the Censure. She didn’t expect [Congresswoman Barbara] Lee (D-CA) to do so well and come in as a candidate more progressive than her. And most of all, she didn’t expect Garvey to be so popular or that the GOP would really come out and vote for him.”

“Ads did probably play a part in that. If she was 3% behind Garvey, her arguments about them and ‘big money,’ you know, they would hold water. But she lost by so much that there is only one big reason why she lost, one that she is not ever going to get over: herself. Schiff adapted to Garvey coming in the race. She didn’t. Garvey, Schiff, and Lee all learned to change things up during the debate or go after new points. She didn’t. Her childish attitude finally caught up to her on the 5th. I mean, double her votes and she still lost.”

“Everyone is saying that his morning. You know, her “sorry, not sorry” comment, that’s not playing well. Look at Schiff and Garvey. They’re quiet now. Schiff is actually going back to his Congressional work and Garvey is busy prepping for this election season as the underdog. Porter is acting like she has nothing to lose. She keeps this up, and she may talk herself out of a professor position or another high profile job post-House.”