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Rep. Katie Porter’s career whiteboard is now freshly wiped clean in a not wholly unexpected way but, at 50, she’s still got a lot of blank space left. It’s now a What’s Next Board.
After all, she’s eight years younger than Vice President Kamala Harris and about six years younger than the soon-to-be termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Oh, and she’s 27 years younger than former President Donald Trump and 31 years younger than President Joe Biden.
Porter’s problem isn’t her age, it’s how does she find the reset button?
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Porter’s exit from the U.S. Senate race was, shall we say, not perfectly executed. On Election Night, she tartly observed that “we had the establishment running scared — withstanding 3-to-1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.”
Porter got her tone wrong, but she’s factually right. There were some billionaire crypto guys dropping a lot of money on ads against her that were now-typical fare: ominous narration, creepy music and so on.
The problem was that the word “rigged” in relation to elections is a registered trademark of Trump, so a lot of fellow Democrats landed on Porter for her choice of words.
“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 with Jon Favreau.”
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Obviously.“I want to really make clear that at no time, 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,” Porter noted, a bit too late.
Rep. Adam Schiff was more than happy to weigh in on “Meet The Press” on March 10. “That term ‘rigged’ is a very loaded term in the year of Trump. It connotes fraud, ballot stuffing and false claims like those of Donald Trump. I think what’s remarkable is Democrats very quickly rallied to say, ‘No, we don’t use that language.’ ”
The question now is whether Porter can quickly rally to salvage what was a promising political career prior to California’s March 5 primary.
Porter’s first step was to immediately send out a clarion call to her followers to donate to President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Always a good start, getting money to someone. Ask any billionaire.
Porter’s event horizon is actually not bad, even if she did step on some toes.
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On Fox40’s “Inside California Politics,” Porter lightly sidestepped host Nikki Laurenzo’s question about whether she’d run for governor in 2026. She noted she was going to help her former 2018 Democratic congressional primary foe, state Sen. Dave Min, who has been dinged up for driving under the influence and faces a strong opponent in Republican Scott Baugh, who gave Porter a very close race in 2022 for her Orange County seat.
Min is by no means a done deal and if he loses, Porter could run for her seat again in 2026. That seems to be a nonstarter for her because she was probably not likely to hold her seat anyway. She obviously didn’t want to be a House lifer; that L.A.-to-D.C. flight is brutal 36 times a year. Being in the Senate keeps you out of Reagan National Airport a bit more often.
Let’s look at the governor’s race. There are several major declared and potential candidates thus far, including her supporter, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and three serious female candidates: former state Senate President Toni Atkins, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former State Controller Betty Yee. Sen. Laphonza Butler can’t be ruled out, either. Nor can former Rep. Jackie Speier, who is now running for San Mateo County Supervisor, a post she held 40 years ago. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is said to be looking at running as well. There may be others, too.
Does Porter clear the field there? Not likely. After her family spat with Schiff and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, not to mention her obvious lack of support from the California Democratic House delegation, most people wouldn’t be seeing a lane there.
Let’s say, for fun, that the Attorney General post opens up. Porter would probably be more likely to make a splash in the as-yet-unjelled AG field. Again, she’s youngish at 50 and has a lot of name ID that wasn’t likely damaged much by her remarks on election night.
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If President Biden is reelected, Porter might be a good fit for a major financial regulatory post, something she expressed an interest for in her book, “I Swear: Politics is Messier Than My Minivan.”
Porter’s minivan may be in the shop and maybe she swore a little, but it’s probably still in running condition.
Jack Ohman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and columnist.
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