Democratic Rep. Katie Porter on Wednesday claimed that there was election interference in the California Senate primary as she accused her opponents of trying to "rig" the race.
The results of the race had Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff advanced to the state's general election runoff in November. Shortly after, a former baseball player, Steve Garvey, took the other spot. This was attributed to Schiff's stratagem where he sidelined Porter at the earliest opportunity.
California Senate Primary
The development marked the end of Porter's campaign after she built a following by chastising pharmaceutical executives with a simple whiteboard on Capitol Hill. It was still unclear where she would head next as she was forced to let go of her House seat to run for the Senate.
Porter took advantage of social media and became the candidate of choice for suburban progressives. However, it was still obvious that Schiff, who is beloved by other Democratic lawmakers for his efforts in pursuing impeachment charges against former United States President Donald Trump, was still the establishment choice, according to the New York Times.
During the early months of campaigning in the state's Senate primary, Democratic heavy hitters coalesced around Schiff. Additionally, he had a crucial endorsement from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that gave him unmatched fund-raising power.
On the other hand, Porter and her supporters knew that Schiff had more resources and they were annoyed by how the Democrat and his allies deployed them. Tens of millions of dollars were used to promote Schiff and signal to Republican voters that Garvey was the conservative who voted twice for the former president.
As many believed, the race was reduced to how California voters felt about the Republican businessman. This was in full view on Tuesday at The Bungalow which was filled with rage pointed at Democratic leaders. Porter and her supporters let out their frustrations with the situation.
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Katie Porter's Rigging Claims
She argued that Schiff had spent more money boosting his Republican rival than promoting his own campaign. During the final weeks of the campaign, a cryptocurrency super PAC targeted Porter, spending millions of dollars on ads against her, said Yahoo News.
The Democrat has supported more regulations on the industry and has also rebuked various corporate leaders during congressional hearings. The targeted ads called Porter a hypocrite for her acceptance of corporate donations, which is a claim that the lawmaker has disputed. There have also been accusations that resurfaced claiming that mistreated some of her staff.
During a brief concession speech, Porter told her supporters that there are many who are now more interested in being an elected official than actually working to fix the issues that the population is struggling with.
Porter's claims quickly drew criticism from some of her fellow Democrats, including Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, who said that the California Senate primary was "not rigged." Additionally, Sen. Alex Padilla, without naming Porter, called the notion of the race being rigged "ridiculous."
Padilla said that as the former secretary of state of California, he assured the public of the integrity of the state elections as well as its results, according to Politico.
