Steve Garvey, riding on his baseball fame, disrupts California's Senate race

In the crowded race to succeed the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Steve Garvey stands out for his celebrity and how little he has actually campaigned.

On community forums, the former baseball star turned pitchman has been a regular no-show. After television debates, he fled from reporters who were waiting in the spin room. The 75-year-old Republican, a political novice, has raised only a fraction of the tens of millions of dollars needed to win a statewide race in California.

But with just two weeks to go until the March 5 primary, Garvey is poised to win one of two spots in the November runoff, despite facing three veteran Democratic members of Congress and a large number of other contenders.

While Rep. Adam Schiff has widened his overall lead, polls indicate Mr. Garvey could beat Rep. Katie Porter for second place in California's unusual “jungle” election.

In a state so large that 22 million voters participated in the last presidential election, name recognition can still overcome political inexperience and a lack of money. Even though that name was largely made by baseball four decades ago.

And in a strategic move that has become common in California, Mr. Schiff may have done more to help Mr. Garvey than Mr. Garvey himself. The leading Democrat has spent $10 million on ads that ostensibly attack Mr. Garvey as “too conservative for California” but are likely to have the effect of turning a critical mass of Republican voters to his side. The result was an unlikely upset in a contest expected to be dominated by two Democratic members of Congress.

Now, Mr. Garvey has become a candidate to watch, despite his party representing less than a quarter of California's electorate and him having little to no chance of winning a statewide general election. With that success has come research.

News articles have highlighted the scandal-laden years following the end of Mr. Garvey resurrected with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres; Californians are reliving the bitter divorce and multiple romances in the late 1980s that made him the punchline of T-shirts and bumper stickers. (“Honk if You're Carrying Steve Garvey's Baby” was once a California favorite.) This month, three of his seven children their alienation described in detail from him to The Los Angeles Times.

On a recent Saturday, days after voters began receiving their ballots, Mr. Schiff laid siege to the Super Bowl weekend airways while two other candidates, Ms. Porter and Representative Barbara Lee, stumbled across Lunar New Year festivals and chatted with young black Democrats. in Los Angeles County.

Mr. Garvey has been home mostly after appearing at a local charity bicycle race near his ranch in Palm Desert. As he checked his mail in slacks and a sweater outside “Casa de Garvey,” where a large red, white and blue banner reading “Steve Garvey for U.S. Senate” flew from the wrought-iron gate, he looked with a smile and a rueful shrug that he was involved in “arguably the toughest race in America.”

Then he walked back up the driveway and answered a follow-up question.

How did the campaign go? “Awesome!”

It is not clear what convinced Mr. Garvey to leave his post-baseball life as a celebrity pitcher behind and run for Senate. So far he has resisted calls for detailed policy positions and said he will study the issues further if he makes it through the primaries. A media tour consisted mainly of visits to homeless camps and the California-Mexico border, and lasted about two days.

Mr Garvey has said he was approached early last year and became convinced he could improve civil discourse. “I never played for Democrats, Republicans or independents,” he says said in a video when he launched his campaign. “I played for all of you.”

Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the Republican Party of California, said in a statement that “his potential promotion to the general election would not only serve as a boost to all Republicans on the November ballot, but also give California Republicans their best chance would give in years to choose to win a Senate seat.”

During the most recent televised debate, held last week in San Francisco, Mr. Garvey appeared slightly better prepared than he did for the first televised confrontation last month.

He advocated closing the U.S.-Mexico border, opposed further minimum wage increases and reiterated his support for Israel over Hamas “yesterday, today and tomorrow.” But after blaming state laws for driving up California's housing costs, he couldn't point to any regulations or say exactly what he would change.

“He's not ready for prime time yet,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime Republican strategist who suggested that Mr. Garvey was lured into the race by advisers and party leaders. “This is just an attempt to get someone with name recognition to carry the Republican flag across the field under heavy machine gun fire, and everyone knows it.”

If Mr. Garvey survives until November, Mrs. Porter may have the biggest complaint.

For months, political pundits believed a November runoff between Mr. Schiff and Ms. Porter was the most likely outcome. Ms. Lee of Oakland is beloved by progressive Democrats, but she has raised less money and consistently ranks fourth in the polls.

California's unusual “jungle” election system, adopted by voters in 2010 to address party gridlock, throws all candidates into one primary and then sends the top two candidates to a runoff in November, regardless of side. Since then, California has twice had two Democrats — and no Republicans — in the November general election for the Senate.

Mr. Schiff, 63, was the impeachment manager during former President Donald J. Trump's first trial and was endorsed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Ms. Porter, 50, a former law professor, has gained national fame for her combative comments in Congress against Trump administration officials and Wall Street financiers.

If Ms. Porter were to get past the primary, she could have a better chance in the general election against Mr. Schiff in November. Although she is a liberal, she has appealed to enough crossover voters in the past to represent a battleground in Orange County. Women, including those who support Ms. Lee, could flock to her, while Republicans could push Mr. Schiff's impeachment charges against him.

If Republicans see Mr. Garvey as a celebrity who can boost turnout, Mr. Schiff may see a perfect foil. If he were to face Mr Garvey in the general election, he would be virtually assured of a victory, given how democratic and polarized the state is. So it was no surprise that Mr. Schiff ran ads that raised the Republican's profile.

It's a gamble that Democratic front-runners have increasingly deployed as their majority in California has grown: Consolidate the state's conservatives behind one Republican in the primaries and then race to victory in the runoff.

Mr. Schiff says the spots merely contrast the leading candidates of both parties. But Ms. Porter and other critics call the move cynical and undemocratic.

“I think voters should choose the candidates,” Ms. Porter said. “Not the other way around.” (Ms. Porter fought fire with fire, recently purchasing online ads of her own trying to convince California conservatives that a lesser-known Republican on the ballot, Eric Early, was “the real Republican threat.”)

Campaign finance reports showed that Mr. Garvey had done so approximately $600,000 raised by the end of December, largely from Republican retirees in Southern California, and had spent more than $100,000 on consulting services.

By comparison, Mr. Schiff had raised more than $35 million, Ms. Porter more than $13.2 million and Ms. Lee more than $1 million.

More extensive research has already exposed Mr. Garvey's family situation.

“Happy birthday 6! I love you so much,” Olivia Garvey, one of his three children with his current wife, Candace Garvey, posted on X in December, and called him by his baseball uniform number. Tribute to his long marriage adorn his social media feeds.

Less visible are the two daughters Mr. Garvey had with his first wife and the two children he had in 1989 with other romantic partners. A daughter from his first marriage, Krisha Garvey, now 49 and based in Los Angeles, said in an interview that Mr. Garvey abruptly cut ties with her 15 years ago and only reconnected last fall, letting her know that he started a Senate. campaign.

A statement said the two children born in 1989 to women Mr. Garvey was involved with at the time – Slade Mendenhall, 34, who lives in Atlanta; and Ashleigh Young, 35, who lives in Japan, said they “couldn't comment on a personal acquaintance with Steve Garvey as we don't have one.”

“In our childhood,” they wrote, “several attempts were made through lawyers to arrange a meeting or even a phone call with Mr. Garvey, but he declined every opportunity.”

On his street, where Garvey's flag was the only political sign, neighbors from both parties described him as down-to-earth and friendly and doubted his family problems would sway voters.

“America is a very forgiving country,” said Gus Shouse, 58, an electrical contractor and fellow Republican who lives down the street and has done some work for the Garveys. “We all fail. We all fall.”

“He's very nice, she's very nice, but we're Democrats — we're not going to vote for him,” said Brian Blatchley, 67, a retired event planner who was out with his husband, Fredy Gerber, 68. , a retired sommelier . They had voted for Mrs. Porter, they said.

Mr. Garvey's communications adviser, Matt Shupe, declined to make him available for further comment, saying that The New York Times had “crossed a line” by making an impromptu conversation in Mr. Garvey's mailbox.

In his statement to the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Garvey said that “the challenges I faced after retiring from Major League Baseball 40 years ago were critical in shaping the person I am,” and that 35 years of marriage “my growth and commitment to family values.”

Political analysts suggest Mr Garvey will face bigger concerns if he makes it to the general election.

“Garvey has three strikes against him,” said David Townsend, a Sacramento-based Democratic campaign consultant. “First of all, he's a Republican in California. Two: he has no money. And third, he was a Dodger. Which means he's hated by the entire San Francisco Giants half of the state.”