Katie Porter, a rising star in Congress, no longer has another seat

There were cocktails and there were sliders. Pop hits were played by a DJ at The Bungalow, a mid-century modern lounge in Long Beach, California, where Rep. Katie Porter had rallied supporters after more than a year of campaigning for a coveted Senate seat.

But there were no televisions.

The crowd — and Ms. Porter — had already guessed what election night had in store.

Had there been screens blaring the news, supporters would have seen a Democratic rival, Rep. Adam B. Schiff, advance to the runoff of California’s general election in November. And shortly afterwards they are said to have watched Steve Garvey, a Republican and former baseball player, take the other spot – not least because of a trick by Mr Schiff that sidelined Ms Porter at the first opportunity.

It was the end of the road for Ms. Porter, 50, a liberal Democrat who built a following by punishing pharmaceutical executives with a simple whiteboard on Capitol Hill. It is unclear where she will go, as she had to give up her seat in the House of Representatives to run for the Senate.

She had used social media effectively and had become the candidate of choice for suburban progressives. But it was clear that Mr. Schiff, beloved by other Democrats for pursuing impeachment charges against former President Donald J. Trump, was the establishment’s choice.

In the first months of the campaign, Democratic heavyweights rallied around the 63-year-old Schiff. And a much-appreciated show of support from Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, provided unprecedented fundraising power.

Although Ms. Porter and her supporters knew Mr. Schiff had greater resources, they were irritated by the way he and his allies deployed them. Tens of millions of dollars were spent not only promoting Mr. Schiff but also signaling to Republican voters that Mr. Garvey was the conservative who voted for Mr. Trump twice. Many thought the race was limited to how California voters felt about the former president.

It was Tuesday at The Bungalow, which had no television but was full of anger at Democratic leaders, where Ms. Porter and her fans vented their frustrations. She attacked Mr. Schiff for “spending more on boosting the Republican than on promoting his own campaign.”

In the final weeks of the campaign, a cryptocurrency super PAC spent millions on ads attacking Ms. Porter, who has supported more regulation of the industry and rebuked several business leaders during congressional hearings. The ads called her a hypocrite for accepting donations from companies, which Ms Porter disputed, and renewed allegations that she abused staff.

“Too many people are more interested in getting elected than actually doing something to solve the problems that ordinary people face,” she told her supporters in a brief concession speech. “That’s why special interests and billionaires spent nearly $20 million trying to keep me out of the Senate. Special interest groups and the ultra-rich like politics as it is now.”

“You scared them, Katie!” someone from the audience shouted.

“We scared them,” Ms. Porter replied.

Ms. Porter’s supporters described Mr. Schiff’s advertising strategy as cynical and sexist, noting that it had the effect of excluding a qualified woman from the general election, leaving the state without a female senator for the first time since 1992 to sit.

“I think Schiff was supposed to be there,” said Larry Limoges, 51, as he waited for Ms. Porter to address the crowd. “The way he does politics is a lot like the way Republicans do politics. Instead of promoting the party, he promoted himself.”

Ms. Porter, 50, launched her campaign for Senate in January 2023, before Senator Dianne Feinstein announced plans to retire after more than three decades in office. Ms. Feinstein was the first California woman to serve in the Senate, and weeks later she was joined by Senator Barbara Boxer in a 1992 election hailed as the “Year of the Woman.” Their rise inspired a generation of young women like Ms. Porter, who at the time was just starting out at Yale University.

Mr. Schiff announced he was running for office a short time later, as did Representative Barbara Lee, 77, a progressive woman from Oakland best known for casting the lone vote in Congress against the use of military force after the attacks of September 11.

In other states, one might assume that a Democratic frontrunner would face a leading Republican in the general election. But California has an open primary system, in which the top two voters go to a runoff regardless of party. Before Mr. Garvey entered the race, it was long thought that Ms. Porter and Mr. Schiff had the best chance of competing in November.

But Mr. Schiff and his supporters used Mr. Garvey’s rise as an opportunity to defeat Ms. Porter and make Mr. Schiff an easier opponent in a state that hasn’t elected a statewide Republican since 2006. Garvey, they could cause more Republicans to flock to him than there would be Democrats to elect Ms. Porter in a crowded field. Their ads did what Mr. Garvey couldn’t do on a shoestring budget.

Some Democratic strategists said it was a smart bet that would allow Democratic groups to shift their money to battleground House races that they would otherwise have spent on a nail-biting Senate race between the parties. In an effort to counter Mr. Schiff’s efforts, Ms. Porter’s campaign paid for online ads telling voters that another Republican, Eric Early, was the real conservative candidate for the Senate.

Mr. Schiff has said his ads both highlight his achievements and contrast him with Mr. Garvey.

“The clearest distinction in terms of the policies of everyone on stage today is not between the three Democrats,” he said after a debate in San Francisco last month. “It’s between the three Democrats and the one Republican. So I’m not going to avoid that contrast.”

Daniel Orea, 28, who uses the pronouns they and them, said they were first impressed by Ms. Porter at an event years ago hosted by the Lavender Democrats of Orange County. Ms. Porter understood what it was like to survive as a worker in one of the most expensive places in the country.

MX. Orea said they were frustrated with the way Mr. Schiff was running his campaign, avoiding tough conversations about how to solve problems for Californians by highlighting what they said was an exaggerated threat posed by the Mr Trump.

“We could have talked about issues that people actually care about, instead of talking about Donald Trump all the time,” they said.

Ms. Porter was elected in 2018, as part of the post-Trump “blue wave” — when voters in once solidly Republican districts in California’s suburbs voted for Democrats, allowing the party to take control of the House of Representatives.

Ms. Porter’s decision to run for Senate meant she had to leave her battleground district, leaving an open seat that Democrats will try to hold this fall without an incumbent. It was a risk that left Democrats in her district feeling conflicted, torn between frustration that she had left her seat vulnerable and a desire to see her profile rise further.

“I don’t feel like criticizing a woman for having ambitions because we want to inspire, uplift and elevate more women to leadership positions,” said Katrina Foley, the first Democratic woman elected in Orange County. Board of Supervisors. “I’m also aware of the timing of things. We are in a more vulnerable position because of the Senate race.”

And Ms. Porter is faced with a looming question: What’s next? She greeted supporters on Tuesday as she left the party but did not answer questions.

Shawn Hubler reporting contributed.