As polling places across California closed at the designated time of 8 p.m., the results of the race for California senator were starting to become clear. The senate seat had three players by election day: Rep. Adam Schiff, former Major League Baseball player Steve Garvey and Rep. Katie Porter.
At Porter’s election party, there was a strong hope that she could pull ahead in the contentious race for second that she and Garvey were engaged in.
“She’s had some tough campaigns,” said a volunteer with the campaign, Carrie Crevel. “We flipped the 47th, the 45th… We did it the last two cycles. I think we can do it again.”
But an hour and a half later, Schiff and Garvey were declared to have advanced, leaving Porter’s progressive supporters blaming Schiff’s attempt to elevate Garvey – and knee-cap Porter.
Throughout the night, supporters were full of compliments for her, hopeful that she would flip this election.
“She’s the smartest woman in Washington,” said Sharon Mulé, Porter advocate and Implementation Specialist for the Institute on Community Integration.
Marvel Harrison, a community advocate for a sewer crisis in Tijuana, agreed with this assessment of Porter’s leadership style.
“Porter has a smart way of going about getting things done and she has a moral compass that will stay in the right direction,” Harrison said.
Porter’s focus on small community issues also earned her the respect of Ron Nelson, who has volunteered with her campaign before.
“She makes the system work better for regular, ordinary people,” Nelson said.
Many people loved that Porter didn’t take money from corporations and political action committees (PACs).
“I really like how she wants to stop all of the extra money and the financial incentives. I think she wants to try to restrict some of the unlimited funds in politics,” Anne Engel, a supporter, said.
But what many saw as her strength, may have been her downfall. Particularly as her opponents didn’t have the same reservations about PAC donations. The hopefulness for her win earlier in the night became anger directed at Schiff. Her supporters saw him, as Mulé described it, as “a political cannibal eating his own.”
One voter, Gene Erman, stated Porter’s loss was, in part, due to “money used [by Schiff] to promote Steve Garvey so Porter didn’t hold the second place.”
Porter herself stated that her opponents had spent over 20 million dollars to “defeat someone who will dilute their influence and disrupt the status quo.”
“If you watch TV, you saw all the ads, essentially giving Garvey unlimited press,” Mulé said.
But Porter’s fans were full of energy despite their anger and loss. Her supporters were cheering her name as she walked onto the event stage - she promptly corrected them to cheer the name of her introductory spokesperson, her daughter, instead: “Betsy, Betsy, Betsy!”
“I love the way she inspires countless people, even if it means sometimes that she won’t stop telling me how much they love her. But most importantly, I see she is always doing the right thing to help people,” Betsy Porter said in her introduction of Porter.
After Betsy Porter finished her speech, Porter hugged her, mouthing, “I’m so proud of you,” a response to Besty Porter’s earlier compliment of the same nature.
Porter’s speech had a prolific message; citing the corruption of major corporations, the destruction of the establishment, and the importance of the working class; but simple at the same time.
“What our success over the last six years has shown is that Californians and Americans are hungry for leaders who break the mold… You deserve a choice between the way things are now and the way they could be,” Porter said.
Californians will have to choose either Garvey or Schiff to take over either or both of the Senate positions open - a partial and a full six-year term. Some Porter fans saw the necessity of voting for Schiff despite his gambit to knee-cap Porter.
“You may not wanna vote for either of the candidates because you don’t feel strongly about either of them,” said Jackson Sutherlin, a fourth-year USC Psychology student who voted for Porter. “But you still have to participate in voting because it has such an impact on your life. Personally, I’m probably going to vote for Adam Schiff because I want a Democrat in a position of leadership in our state. I hope other people will do the same.”
It’s yet to be seen whether more progressive voters are willing to compromise. For many, Porter was the representation of a belief in a better future, a way to “Shake Up the Senate.”
“It’s a shame for this country to lose her. She’s always giving me a little bit of hope,” Mulé said.