Rep. Adam Schiff pitches Senate bid at meet-and-greet in Irvine

U.S. House Rep. Adam Schiff welcomed potential voters in support of his bid for a senate seat during a meet-and-greet Wednesday in Irvine, a city represented by one of two fellow Democrats running against him, Rep. Katie Porter.

As of Thursday, Schiff, Porter and one other member of the House, Barbara Lee of California’s 12th Congressional District, had begun campaigns to fill the position held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein since 1992. Last Tuesday, the senior stateswoman said she plans to retire when her term ends at the beginning of 2025.

Schiff and Porter declared their candidacies for the Senate in January. Lee went public with her campaign a week after Feinstein announced she would not be seeking reelection. Rep. Ro Khanna of the 17th District has reportedly been considering entering the race.

A recent UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times found that four out of 10 registered Democrats and nonpartisan voters were undecided as to how they might vote in the 2024 election. Of those who had decided to back a candidate, an equal number supported Schiff and Porter. They held strong early leads over the other two candidates, according to the poll.

About 200 people huddled beneath heat lamps on the patio outside of Hangar 24 Craft Brewing to meet Schiff and hear his pitch for the job. Nhung Trong, 45, of Irvine was among those gathered Wednesday. She said she had been a member of Schiff’s staff between 2003 and 2005; she had also supported Porter when she ran for the House.

But now she is on “team Schiff” because he currently represents a district that would likely be taken over by another Democrat if he moved into the Senate, she said.

Orange County has historically shown more conservative leanings than most other parts of California, and at least one Republican, former Assemblyman Scott Baugh, has announced his candidacy to represent Porter’s 47th District.

“We need her there,” Trong said. “She’s risking her seat by running for Senate and [possibly] turning it over.”

Schiff described himself and his current competition for the Senate as “good progressive candidates,” during an interview following the event. But, he added, “What I like to think distinguishes me is my ability to get things done, to work with others on behalf of Californians.”

Schiff told supporters his platform centered on “three existential challenges facing our state, facing our country and, indeed, the rest of the World. They are the economy, our democracy and our planet,” he said.

He shared that when he was growing up, his family had been able to afford a house and an education for him and his brother on a single traveling salesman’s salary. But now, many households with two people working full-time struggle to make ends meet.

“My Republican friends would like to believe, I suppose, or have others believe, that the challenges people face in the economy are just the result of impersonal market forces and Adam Smith’s invisible hand,” Schiff said. “But in fact, they’re the product of very discreet decisions, policy decisions we make that have structured the economy in a way that just doesn’t work for millions of people.”

He argued that even in the face of rising employment, elements of tax code that favor hedge fund managers and America’s wealthiest citizens were contributing to inequality.

The congressman went on to note that when lawmakers more than doubled the child income credit during the pandemic, the number of kids living in poverty in the U.S. fell by 40%. He said he would work toward other measures focused on providing relief to working class families.

Schiff later said he would like to see an end to the filibuster. He came out in favor of protecting natural resources and investing in green infrastructure in hope of stemming the effects of climate change. He also spoke in support of reproductive rights and gun safety legislation, as well as oversight over cable news networks to prevent the reporting of misleading theories or untruths as facts, specifically citing segments aired by Fox television host Tucker Carlson as examples.

“This is what I want to fight for in the Senate, and I will take on the Mitch McConnells and the Ted Cruzes and Josh Hawleys and anyone I need to to get these things done,” he said.

He also said he would pursue accountability for what he characterized as abuses of power by the past administration. The congressman representing California’s 30th Congressional district, which includes Hollywood, Glendale, a portion of Pasadena as well as the communities of Sunland and Tujunga, played a prominent role in the House Jan. 6 Commission.

Schiff described Donald Trump as a “demagogue” as well as a threat to democracy on Wednesday, and throughout a large portion of the former president’s term in office. But despite his vocal opposition to the past administration, he said he has worked with Republicans before to pass meaningful legislation and will continue to seek common ground with colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

“People, Pre-Trump, viewed me as an expert on foreign policy, on national security, as very non partisan,” Schiff said. “I don’t think I’ve changed. What I saw was a president bent on tearing down our democracy, and I wasn’t going to stand still.”

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