There are no single mothers in the U.S. Senate. There is one in the House of Representatives, and that’s Katie Porter.
By most accounts, the 2024 U.S. Senate race is Rep. Adam Schiff’s to lose.
And why wouldn’t it be? He’s from Los Angeles County but also has the support of San Francisco’s House speaker emerita, Nancy Pelosi, has almost all of the California Democratic congressional caucus lined up and is a national media star because of his leadership on the Trump impeachment efforts.
What’s missing? Not much, really, but he’s still getting a vigorous primary election challenge from two women, one of whom is Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine.
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Schiff would be a lot like most of the other U.S. senators, not to discredit his career in any way whatsoever: older, white, male, lawyer and all that. But women have represented California in the Senate since 1992, until Kamala Harris was elected vice president in 2020, vacating the seat previously held by Sen. Barbara Boxer.
There are no single mothers in the U.S. Senate. There is one in the House of Representatives, and that’s Porter.
If Porter wants some traction, there it is. Talk about that.
She doesn’t have to say anything else. She doesn’t even have to directly appeal to single mothers, mothers as a general concept will do.
She doesn’t have to hip-check Schiff or find some minor policy difference between herself and Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, who is also trying to get the golden second-place ticket.
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Oh, there’s also Republican Steve Garvey, who apparently is good at athletics. So was Republican Caitlyn Jenner, which didn’t seem to help her much. Garvey will probably show up about where Jenner did in the 2021 Newsom recall election if he doesn’t show more signs of life.
There are 1.4 million single parents in California — a rather significant life experience Porter’s lived and is very capable of conveying.
In her jaw-droppingly candid new book, “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan,” Porter writes compellingly about her efforts to raise three kids while serving as a member of Congress. She also writes about her weight, her dress size, her divorce, her upbringing in Iowa, her whiteboard, her kids and her general endorsement of bacon.
I don’t think any of that is in Schiff’s new book.
Porter could run being pro-bacon and get to the general election.
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In some ways, Porter would be a typical senator: Yale undergrad, Harvard Law. Snore. But that’s about it. She’d probably be more like Pennsylvania’s Sen. John Fetterman, whose Gen X candor is an asset. She wouldn’t even have to wear a hoodie or flip-flops.
Porter could talk smack about agriculture price supports with fellow Iowan and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, for whom she interned in the 1990s, oddly enough. California, after all, is the leading ag state in the country.
As most mothers in the state of California struggle to raise their kids, Porter has a baseline frame of reference.
A woman who was a former major statewide elected official not from California told me that Porter represents the common woman, being one herself, and that “it is so essential that we have a diversity of perspectives at the leadership table, and that voice she’s got is a solo … (but) this is an embarrassment of riches from the state of California. There are three really talented candidates. That’s a good thing.”
“I think it’s important in this day and age that there be a single parent who understands the struggles of single parents (in politics).”
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Porter isn’t perfect, and, in “I Swear,” she notes tartly about Schiff that she can “totally believe you’re over sixty years old, Adam, because defending our democracy does cause wrinkles and hair loss, and you did the Lord’s work for a year or two.” Porter doesn’t need to apologize for her candidacy at all — it’s obviously not something she’s been planning since the age of 5 — but that kind of quippiness may backfire later.
Porter says in her book that she only initially aspired to be a bureaucrat in a windowless office implementing government policy, but one of her dream jobs would be IRS commissioner, observing that “even the Bible spurns tax collectors, but if death and taxes are inevitable, we might as well do taxes right. Bezos, get ready to pay up.”
There’s a commercial: Bezos, pay up. Throw in bacon, too.
Porter had worked as an aide to then-state Attorney General Harris, helping investigate mortgage companies and their slippery processes. Porter carried this on in the House of Representatives, engaging in the live televised public skinning of JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon for his insensitivity to people in his employ who aren’t, you know, billionaires. This led Porter and her whiteboard to Viral Superstar status.
Polling shows Porter either slightly up, slightly down or maybe falling a bit more behind than she wants. With 21% of the Democratic electorate undecided, it’s a jump ball.
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If Porter manages to pull this out, and she could, she would be an instant 2028 presidential candidate — a woman representing California who was raised in Iowa and was in 4-H Club.
Iowa’s Republicans may be backing Donald Trump this election cycle, but with Porter right at home talking about quilting, silage, corn and other popular Iowa pastimes, a Porter 2028 campaign may even convince some of this year’s Trump voters to switch sides.
After all, bacon will still be popular then as well.
Jack Ohman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and writer.
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