Just got an email announcing her run for the Senate. Didn’t see anything online, nor heard that Dianne Feinstein was stepping down. I assume it’s for real, though I thought I would have heard either on the news or from Feinstein before I got an email. Has anyone heard to confirm?
The last email i got from her was regarding her reading material on the House floor last week.
There is this recent politico article about her considering a run, so it wouldn’t surprise me. Haven’t heard any news on Feinstein though.
Katie Porter weighs Senate bid launch as Feinstein stays mum - POLITICO
Her Twitter confirms.
Thanks, To confirm, here’s the opening of the e-mail, which do go on:
Blockquote It’s official: I’m running to represent California in the United States Senate
I want you on my team. Can you add your name to personally endorse me and become one of my campaign’s first official supporters?
I’m running for the U.S. Senate because Californians deserve a warrior fighting for them in Washington. In the House, I’ve stood up to leaders of both parties—as both the only Democrat to oppose earmarks and as one of just a dozen Members of Congress to reject lobbyist and corporate PAC money.
I’m not a career politician. I’m a single mom of three school-aged kids in Orange County and I drive a minivan. Plenty of people know me as the “woman with the whiteboard.”
Perhaps she’s trying to force Diane’s hand?
Good, cuz apparently somebody has to.
Good. She’d be a terrific Senator, and Feinstein should have retired years ago.
It seems to me that Feinstein won’t want to step down (“retire”) under the pressure of a strong primary opponent, any more than she wants to lose an election. If she decides to fight it through, even if she is not the better choice, she is likely to win due to very long-time name familiarity and inertia.
Also, I don’t like this commercial, it attempts to be manipulative and only succeeds in being annoying.
I suppose that depends very heavily on how the party in general handles the situation. It would be a great opportunity to be a little bit forward-thinking and keep their eye on the prize. But I don’t think Porter’s ever been a particular favorite of the leadership, and if they were inclined to be forward-thinking about Feinstein you’d think they’d have decided to do that before now.
She’s older than god, how hard can she push back?
Agreed, although the downside is that her House seat is likely to go to an Orange County Republican. It’s worth it to move Feinstein out with someone who isn’t beholden to entrenched corporate and bureaucratic interests but it’s not going to shift the balance, and of the 20 Senate seats held by Democrats that are up for election in 2024 (not counting Sinema) eight of them are in “battleground states”, and none of the GOP-held seats are likely to be contested (even Indiana and Nebraska where the incumbent has or is retiring) which is even less favorable than 2022. Biden better put his running shoes on and be out campaigning for his team because if they lose even one seat he’s going to be a four year lame duck even if he retains the Resolute desk.
Stranger
The buzz is that “everyone” knows Feinstein will not run for re-election. I guess we’ll see. Certainly, Porter would be terrific.
Feinstein would be 91 by that point. The odds of her actually running are already pretty low. But beyond that, I think if Feinstein did run again she could probably be successfully primaried on her age alone. I think Porter probably takes it in a walk.
But as Stranger_On_A_Train notes it will as likely as not be a net loss for the Democrats in congress.
Why is this likely? Is there a bluer state than California out there?
There are some red districts in California; however, Katie Porter’s 47th has a Cook partisan voting index of D+3.
More Californians voted for Trump in 2020 than in all of Texas 
.
California is deep blue, except where it isn’t. In some locales it is ruby red. Katie Porter’s old district (and neighboring districts) was long one of the strongholds of the suburban branch of the Republican party. In the old 45th District Porter was the first Democrat elected there since it was erected in 1983. She has since been redistricted to the 47th which is more Democratic than the old 45th, but with the shifting boundaries she still holds what can only be described as a blue-tinged purple seat. She didn’t win by a lot and a less popular Democrat could lose it.
Perhaps likely is too strong. Howabout quite plausible.
ETA: Snap take - Trump runs, the Dems take it as CA suburban Republicans specifically aren’t huge fans and CA Dems of course utterly loathe him. Just a small number or Republicans staying home probably guarantees a D win.
If it’s DeSantis or someone else, harder to predict.
Party politics being what they are, I doubt this decision wasn’t done without at least some input, and hopefully cooperation with, Dianne Feinstein’s team. Hopefully, this will dovetail nicely with Feinstein’s impending retirement.
Meanwhile, I love me some Katie Porter. She’s on my short list of people I want to be my president. So this is an excellent stepping stone for her! Huzzah!
Yeah, people don’t seem to get this. Coastal California (Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, San Diego County, and San Francisco) is solidly blue and they do contain the largest concentration of voters; as you go inland and north you see a lot more “Trump!” banners and bumper stickers, and the Northern Mountain counties (Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskyou, Tehama, and Trinity) are as Trumpy as Wyoming and Idaho. Conservative voters don’t dominate state politics because urban voters are somewhat more numerous and more active (hence why many of them keep championing the notion of the “State of Jefferson” or splitting the state into multiple polities) but there is a push-pull that keeps California from being nearly as liberal in policy terms as New York, Massachusetts, or Vermont, and despite all of the bitching about how much political power the state allegedly has in federal politics, it has just two senators like every other state and is 25th in terms of House seat per population and is dead last in terms of the number of Electoral College votes by population.
Stranger
This tack got Patty Murray elected.
I’m with you on Katie P., but I suspect this was done as a power move. Katie asked her to announce that she wasn’t running, she refused, Katie didn’t want her refusal blocking her run (and her fundraising), and I think she decided to do this to force her to announce that she isn’t running. If she does run, I think Katie will knock her block off.