Two 2024 United States Senate elections in California were held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of California. There were two ballot items for the same Class 1 seat: a special election to fill the seat for the final month of the 118th United States Congress (ending on January 3, 2025), and a regular general election for a full term that began on January 3, 2025, in the 119th United States Congress. This was the second time in a row that both a regular and special election for the U.S. Senate occurred simultaneously in California, following the 2022 elections.
Two Democratic U.S. representatives, Katie Porter of Irvine and Adam Schiff of Burbank, entered the race for the 119th Congress before February 14, 2023, when fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein announced that she would retire at the end of her term.[1][2] A third, Barbara Lee of Oakland, announced her campaign on February 21, 2023.[3] Feinstein died in office on September 29, 2023. On October 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein's term until a special election could be held in November 2024 to fill the last month of Feinstein's term. On October 19, 2023, Butler announced that she would not seek election to finish the final month of Feinstein's term, nor for a full Senate term in the 119th Congress.
Primary elections took place on March 5, 2024, during
nonpartisan blanket primary election, in which all candidates regardless of party affiliation appear on the same primary ballot and the two highest-placing candidates advance to the general election; however, primary special election winners can win outright if they win more than 50% of the vote in the first round.[5] Schiff, along with Republican former baseball player Steve Garvey, advanced to the general election in both the special and regular elections. As no Republican has won a Senate election in California since 1988
, Schiff was considered a heavy favorite, and easily won both the regular and special general elections with more than 58% of the vote.
Schiff became the first male U.S. senator from this seat since
junior senator (Schiff).[6] Schiff's popular vote total of 9 million in the regular election broke the record previously held by Feinstein in 2012
for the highest vote total ever received by a U.S. Senate candidate in American history, as well as the highest vote total ever received by a candidate for any office in any state outside of the presidency.
With over 41% of the vote in the general election, Garvey had the best performance of any Republican candidate for this seat since 1994. Garvey managed to win Orange County, which voted for Kamala Harris in the concurrent presidential election. He also flipped three counties compared to the 2022 Senate election: Lake, Imperial, and San Joaquin counties. With over 6.3 million votes in the regular election, Garvey set the record for the most votes ever received by a Republican candidate in California, and the most votes received by a non-presidential Republican candidate in any state in American history; he received over 200,000 more votes than Donald Trump did in the state's presidential election.
Background
California is considered to be a safe blue state at the federal and state levels, with Joe Biden winning the state by a margin of 29.16% in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats currently hold a large majority in California's U.S. House delegation, all statewide offices (including both U.S. Senate seats), and supermajorities in both of California's state legislative chambers.
Prior to the 2024 election, senator Dianne Feinstein had served in Congress since being elected in a 1992 special election, defeating Republican appointee John Seymour. During her career, she was re-elected five times, winning in 1994, 2000, 2006, 2012, and most recently in 2018, where she defeated fellow Democrat Kevin de León with 54.2% of the vote. At the time of her death, Feinstein was the most senior Democrat in the Senate, and is the longest serving U.S. senator in California's history.
Media sources speculated for years that Dianne Feinstein might choose not to seek reelection in 2024 or resign before the end of her term, owing to her age, reports that her cognitive state was declining, and her decision not to take the position of Senate president pro tempore in the 118th Congress, third in line for the presidency, even though she would customarily have been offered the role as the most senior member of the majority caucus. There was also speculation that Feinstein might face opposition within the Democratic Party as she did in 2018, when she was challenged by fellow Democrat Kevin de León and defeated him by an unexpectedly narrow margin.[44] In December 2022, Feinstein confirmed that she would not resign before the end of her term.[45]
In January 2023, with the question of Feinstein's reelection decision still open, U.S. Representative Katie Porter announced that she would run for the Senate. She confirmed that she would stay in the race even if Feinstein chose to run for another term.[1] Porter was first elected in 2018, unseating incumbent Mimi Walters. She later gained national fame for her progressive politics, and frequently went viral online for her pointed questioning of corporate executives in congressional hearings, often while using a whiteboard.[46] Porter's coastal, Orange County-based district is considered highly competitive, and all of her elections have been close.[47]
Adam Schiff at his first campaign event, February 2023
Two weeks later, Porter was joined by another Democratic member of the House,
January 6 Committee, and his frequent appearances on MSNBC.[49] Schiff has not faced a competitive election since 2000, as his Los Angeles-based district became significantly more Democratic during the 2000 redistricting cycle and has been considered a safe seat ever since.[50]
Oakland, is one of the most Democratic-leaning districts in the entire country.[55]
Feinstein continued to demur on her reelection plans, at one point saying she would not announce her decision until 2024.[56] But in February 2023, she confirmed that she would retire, ending a political career that spanned over 50 years.[57] The 2024 election is only the second California Senate race without an incumbent since 1992, the other being the 2016 election following Barbara Boxer's retirement. However, Politico pointed out that the 2016 election had an "early and prohibitive frontrunner" in Kamala Harris while the 2024 election has no clear frontrunner, and thus considered the 2024 election the first truly open California Senate race in 32 years.[58]
Early months of the race
Lee, Porter, and Schiff have similar voting records in Congress and similarly progressive platforms. As a result, they were expected to differentiate themselves by their life stories and individual strengths rather than their ideologies.
Schiff began 2023 with $20.6 million in his campaign account compared to $7.7 million for Porter and just under $55,000 for Lee.[63] All three quickly began raising large sums of money; for example, in the first 24 hours of her campaign, Porter raised over $1.3 million.[64] The three also launched super PACs to aid with fundraising, each competing for the top California fundraising firms and consultants. Former Federal Election Commission chair Ann Ravel predicted that the race would be one of the most expensive Senate elections in history.[65] The expensive nature of the race led media sources to speculate that a wealthy candidate could run a competitive self-funded campaign, akin to Rick Caruso's campaign in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election.[66] This scenario seemed to come to pass when former Google executive Lexi Reese joined the race in June 2023; her aides told Politico she would spend a "significant" amount of her own money on her campaign.[67] However, Reese made little impact on the race and dropped out months later; though she raised $2 million, much of it self-funded, she wrote that this was "just not enough to run a state-wide campaign."[15]
Throughout most of 2023, there were no prominent Republicans in the race. This has been attributed to California's
top-two primary system may allow two Democrats to advance to the general election, a scenario that played out in the 2016 and 2018 Senate races, though the three-way division in the 2024 Democratic field could help a Republican reach the general election. Republicans would also benefit from the fact that the 2024 California Republican presidential primary, held on the same day as the Senate primary, was expected to be hotly contested and entice Republican voters to turn out in higher numbers.[43][40]
Feinstein's death and replacement
Feinstein faced calls to resign throughout 2023 due to reports of her declining health, including from U.S. Representative
Los Angeles County supervisor Holly Mitchell, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, though Bass, Mitchell, and Winfrey said they would not be interested.[69][70] In September 2023, Newsom confirmed he would fulfill his promise to appoint a black woman, but said he would not appoint any candidate running to succeed Feinstein, and would instead appoint someone who committed not to run for a full term. Lee, the only black woman in the race, responded, "the idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election."[71] Lee faced backlash for her comments, with several advisors to Newsom leaving her super PAC.[72] Newsom argued that the question of a Senate vacancy was "a hypothetical on top of a hypothetical," believing that Feinstein would not leave office before her term ended.[73]
Feinstein died later that month, on September 29, 2023.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (right) swears in Laphonza Butler (left)
On October 1, Newsom appointed Butler to the Senate, with no conditions about whether she may run in 2024.
D.C. metropolitan area in 2021, and that she still owned a home in Los Angeles; promising to re-register to vote in the state.[84] Butler was also criticized for advising Uber as it lobbied against a 2019 California bill to classify rideshare drivers as employees. In response, she maintained that she personally supported the bill.[85] At first, Butler left open the question of whether she would run for a full term, but on October 19, she said she would not run in either of the 2024 Senate elections.[21][86]
Later events in 2023
On October 10, 2023, Republicans gained a prominent candidate when former professional baseball player Steve Garvey entered the race. Garvey, who played for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, was considered to have an advantage in name recognition. Two other Republican candidates, healthcare executive James Bradley and attorney Eric Early, both of whom had previously made several unsuccessful bids for office, also attracted some media attention and support in polls.[33]
Schiff and Porter consistently led in polling throughout the race, with Lee and the Republicans far behind. Lee's poor polling numbers was attributed to a lack of name recognition outside her San Francisco Bay Area constituency, her lack of fundraising compared to Schiff and Porter, and the fact that Schiff and Porter had prior national fame while Lee was less well-known. In November 2023, Lee ruled out withdrawing from the race and insisted she still had a chance.[87] Lee's campaign became much more willing to openly criticize her two main rivals, attempting to define Lee as the most progressive candidate in the race.[72]
On November 18, 2023, the California Democratic Party held its endorsing convention for the Senate race. Lee received the most delegate votes, narrowly outpacing Schiff; however, neither candidate came close to reaching the 60% threshold necessary to win the endorsement.[88] Rumors had circulated that Lee would drop out of the race and run for re-election to the House if she did not receive the party's endorsement, but her campaign reiterated after the convention that she intended on staying in the Senate race.[89]
California Democratic Party Senate endorsement vote (60% required)[90]
Candidate
Regular election
Special election
Votes
%
Result
Votes
%
Result
Barbara Lee
963
41.47%
No endorsement
958
41.26%
No endorsement
Adam Schiff
933
40.18%
927
39.92%
Katie Porter
373
16.06%
361
15.59%
Lexi Reese
3
0.13%
2
0.09%
Don't endorse
50
2.15%
67
2.89%
Total
2,322
100.00%
2,315
100.00%
The
2023 Israel–Hamas war became a late issue in the race, with Lee initially being the only major candidate to call for a ceasefire. The California Democratic Party convention was disrupted by pro-Palestine protests calling for a ceasefire. Protestors entered the main convention arena and shouted, interrupting speeches by Schiff, Porter, and Lexi Reese. Some reportedly chanted the slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."[91] While the protest was initially peaceful, it later escalated, with over 1,000 protestors entering the building. Police locked down the building and the rest of the scheduled events that day were cancelled.[92] Porter would later call for a ceasefire the following month.[93]
Final months of the primary
A 2024 primary ballot showing both U.S. Senate elections
In the months after his announcement, Garvey steadily rose in polling, heightening Republicans' odds of getting a candidate through to the general election.
boost the second place candidate whom they feel they can defeat most easily; Schiff's campaign denied that this was his intention.[96] Supporters of Schiff also independently purchased a similar anti-Garvey ad which ran on Fox News, despite Schiff previously calling for a boycott of the network.[97] Porter later began airing similar ads against another Republican, Eric Early. These ads were seen as an effort to split the Republican vote and help Porter clinch the second general election spot, though Porter denied this.[98]
Israel-Hamas war. The stance of all candidates towards congressional earmarks, which Porter strongly opposes, also was a key topic.[100]
Schiff and Garvey advanced in both regular and special primaries, albeit with different results. Schiff narrowly secured the first place in the regular primary with just 0.05% of the vote over Garvey, but fell short of it in the special one by 4%. However, the three leading Democrats overall performed better in the special primary, with 58.2% of the vote compared to 56.7%.[268][269]
Candidates' vote share by county Schiff (top-left), Garvey (top-right) Porter (bottom-left), Lee (bottom-right)
Top three Democrats' results by county in the regular primary
Top three Democrats' results by county in the special primary
Best Democrat's performance by county in the regular primary (blue for Schiff, green for Porter)
Best Democrat's performance by county in the special primary (blue for Schiff, green for Porter)
Early's results by county in the regular primary
Early's results by county in the special primary
Aftermath
After her loss, Porter remarked that the election was "rigged by billionaires," referring to a $10 million independent ad campaign attacking her that was funded by cryptocurrency supporters.[271] Porter's use of the word "rigged" was criticized, with some comparing her statement to Donald Trump's true claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Porter expressed regret for use of the word "rigged" and said that she meant to say that the election was "manipulated by dishonest means" which was a reference to the use of dark money in campaign financing, and not to mean that there was anything illegitimate about the vote counting.[272][273]
Schiff won 39 of 52 congressional districts in the regular and special elections, with the remaining 13 going to Garvey, including four that elected Democrats.[318]
^ abGrundmann is a member of the Constitution Party, but ran as No Party Preference because the Constitution Party did not have ballot access in California
^Brown publicly stated he wished for Schiff, Porter, and Lee to withdraw and endorse Butler's potential bid; however, Butler declined to run for a full term.
^Sarah Sun Liew (R) with 2%; Denice Gary-Pandol (R), Jonathan Reiss (R), Christina Pasucci (D), David Peterson (D), Douglas H. Pierce (D), Sharleta Bassett (R), James Macauley (R), Forrest Jones (AI), Gail Lightfoot (L), Laura Garza (NPP), Don J. Grundmann (C), "someone else" with 1%; Raji Rab (D), John David Rose (D), Major Singh (NPP), Perry Pound (D), Mark Ruzon (ASP), Sepi Gilani (D), Harmesh Kumar (D), Stefan Simchowitz (R), Martin Veprauskas (R), "would not vote for U.S. Senator" with 0%
^Jessica Resendez (D) with 1%; "All other individual candidates with 1%
^Christina Pascucci (D) with 2%; Jonathan Reiss (R) with 1%; Sarah Sun Liew (R) with 1%; Someone else with 1%
^Sharleta Bassett (R) with 3%; Jonathan Reiss (R) with 2%; "All others (each with 1% or more)" with 8%
^Christina Pascucci (D) with 3%; Denise Gary-Pandol (R) with 1%
^Christina Pascucci (D) with 5%; Jonathan Reiss (R), Lexi Reese (D) & "Other" with 1%
^Christina Pascucci (D), Lexi Reese (D) & "Someone else" with 2%; Sarah Sun Liew (R) & Jonathan Reiss (R) with 1%
^"Others" with 5%; Lexie Reese (D) & Christina Pascucci (D) with 1%
^"Someone else" with 12%; Barack Mandela (R), Sarah Sun Liew (R), Jonathan Reiss (R) & Jessica Resendez (D) with 2%; Paul Anderson (G), Dana Bobbit (I), Joshua Bocanegra (D), Danny Fabricant (R), Jeremy Fennell (D), Frank Ferreira (I), Roxanne Lawler (R), John Poppenheim (R), Raji Rab (D), Lexi Reese (D), Katie Roederscheimer (I) & John Rose (D) with 1%; Akinyemi Agbede (D), Fepbrina Autiameineire (O), Jacob Farmos (D), Carson Franklin (D), Dian Foxington (D), Denice Gary-Pandol (R), Jehu Hand (R), Denard Ingram (D), Zakaira Kortam (R) & "Would not vote" with 0%
^Sarah Sun Liew (R) with 3%; Several other candidates with <2%
^Barack Mandela, Jonathan Reiss, Jessica Resendez and "Someone else" with 3%; Roxanne Lawler, John Pappenheim, Katie Roedersheimer, and Sarah Sun Liew with 2%; Akinyemi Agbede, Paul Anderson, Dana Bobbit, Joshua Bocanegra, Danny Fabricant, Jacob Farmos, Frank Ferreria, Denise Gary-Pandol, Zakaira Kortam, Lexi Reese, John Rose, and "Would not vote" with 1%; Fepbrina Autiameineire, Jeremy Fennell, Dian Foxington, Carson Franklin, Jehu Hand, Denard Ingram, and Raji Rab with 0%
^Sarah Sun Liew with 5%; Jonathan Reiss with 4%; Frank Ferreria and "Someone else" with 3%; Joshua Bocanegra, Danny Fabricant, Roxanne Lawler, Raji Rab, and Jessica Resendez with 2%; Akinyemi Agbede, Jacob Farmos, Jeremy Fennell, Denise Gary-Pandol, Denard Ingram, and Jehu Hand with 1%
^Jessica Resendez with 3%; Douglas Howard Pierce with 2%; Frank Ferreria, Denise Gary-Pandol, Roxanne Lawler, Raji Rab, Jonathan Reiss, and "Someone else" with 1%
^ abcdSinger, Jeff (February 21, 2023). "Daily Kos Elections Live Digest: 2/21". Daily Kos. Retrieved February 21, 2023. Two other people who had been mentioned as possible contenders, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, did take themselves out of the running on Tuesday by endorsing Lee.
. Retrieved February 23, 2024. Jones, an Oakland native, had been an intern in Lee's California office before taking office in Tennessee and is one of the many young Democratic politicians who have endorsed her
^White, Jeremy B.; Gardiner, Dustin; Korte, Lara (November 16, 2023). "Decision time for a Dem party chair: First in Playbook - Great Scott". Politico. Retrieved November 16, 2023. Rep. Katie Porter has scooped up the endorsement of state Sen. Scott Wiener, who praised her as someone 'who will go against the grain and speak truth to power.'
^ abYu, Yue Stella (November 19, 2023). "California Democrats are divided on Senate race, Gaza war". CalMatters. Retrieved February 19, 2023. At Porter's event next door that night, her staff passed out swag promoting her whiteboard fame and the campaign invited four Democrats — state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, Assemblymember Alex Lee of Milpitas, Orange County Democratic Chairperson Ada Briceño and National Union of Healthcare Workers President Sal Rosselli — to speak in support.
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