Katie Porter Runs for California Governor at 52, Polling Fifth After 2024 Senate Loss
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 3
Katie Porter Runs for California Governor at 52, Polling Fifth After 2024 Senate Loss
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 3
Katie Porter, 52, is campaigning to become California’s first female governor, but early polling has shown the former Democratic House member stuck around fifth place.
Her pitch leans on a progressive record and personal biography — a minivan-driving single mother — while highlighting the whiteboard-driven corporate grilling that made her a national figure in Congress.
Porter also argues she can win beyond the Democratic base, pointing to her 2018 flip of a long-Republican Orange County House seat and her ability to hold it afterward.
That statewide bid comes after a bruising 2024 Senate primary loss in which she clashed with California’s Democratic establishment and later criticized the party for backing Adam Schiff, now a senator.