Democratic Senate hopeful, Rep. Adam Schiff, will face off against Republican Steve. Garvey in California’s Senate race this November, beating out two other Democrats to make the ballot.
Schiff’s campaign ran ads ahead of Tuesday’s Golden State primary calling out the sole Republican in the race, former Major League Baseball star Garvey, for being a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Schiff also characterized Garvey as being ‘too conservative for California,’ hoping the ads would work as cat nip for Republican voters, and thus knee-capping his two Democratic rivals, Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
California is such a blue state – especially in a presidential election year – that Garvey as a rival practically guarantees that it will be Schiff to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein and fill the rest of her current term.
The state has a ‘jungle’ style primary that the two top voter-getters, regardless of party, move on to the November ballot.
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was the first candidate in California’s four-way Senate race to advance to the general election
He will be on the ballot against Republican Steve Garvey, a former Major League Baseball star. Schiff’s campaign elevated Garvey’s profile in California, attaching him to former President Donald Trump to entice GOP voters to come out and vote for him
On Tuesday night, within 30 minutes of polls closing, Schiff officially advanced to the general election, with Garvey quickly called by CBS and NBC as the former House Intelligence Committee chairman’s opponent.
The results were bad news for Porter, a nationally known progressive, as well as longtime California lawmaker Lee.
Porter was receiving about 15 percent of the vote and Lee was only netting around 7 percent.
The quick race announcement went practically unnoticed at Porter’s Long Beach watch party, where a deejay blasted Katy Perry’s Firework, a favorite at Democratic Party events, and, oddly, YMCA, a known fixture of former President Donald Trump’s rally playlist.
In the end, Schiff’s ads seemingly had an impact.
‘The ads that have been running in opposition of Steve Garvey, for me, I watched them and I’m finding myself kind of laughing, thinking those are the exact reasons why I do want to vote for him,’ 32-year-old Michael Mesbah told DailyMail.com at his polling place in downtown Huntington Beach Monday.
Mesbah, who works in advertising, went to the polls Monday alongside his wife Allyssa, 29, a dancer, where they both cast votes for Trump and Garvey.
He wasn’t surprised when informed those ads were paid for by Schiff.
‘That would make sense because they’re flattering ads if you’re looking at them from that viewpoint,’ Mesbah said.