U.S. Rep. Katie Porter became a social media celebrity by brandishing a white board at congressional hearings to dissect CEOs and break down complex figures into assaults on corporate greed, a signature image that propelled the Democrat’s U.S. Senate candidacy in California.
The progressive favorite known for spotlighting her soccer mom, minivan-driving home life was trounced in Tuesday’s primary election to fill the seat once held by the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, finishing far behind Republican Steve Garvey and fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
Porter didn’t go down quietly. She immediately pointed a finger at “billionaires spending millions to rig this election.” That claim resulted in a brutal social media backlash from many who were happy to depict the congresswoman as a graceless loser.
Perhaps chastened by the criticism, Porter later clarified her initial statement to say she didn’t believe the California vote count or election process had been compromised, but she didn’t recant her earlier remarks. Rigged, she said in a follow-up, “means manipulated by dishonest means.”
She was done dirty. Her own party played nasty tricks to keep her from winning.
What tricks? I genuinely haven’t heard.
Schiff spent money on ads on Fox News to boost the Republican in the race so he’d be #2 instead of Porter. He spent more money boosting him than the Republican himself did.
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If Voting worked. It would be illegal.
Just ignore all the active measures across red country trying to effectively make it illegal for anyone who doesn’t vote red.
He says, in a thread about Democrats backing Republicans because they’re terrified of progressives.
I love Katie, but she fights the power and the power controls everything
Adam Schiff is so fucking slimey. I do not want that man to represent me. He spent millions to boost a republican so that he would not have to run against Katie Porter. It reminds me of Hillary’s superdelegates. The party is broken, the mega rich are pretending to let us have a say and then pretending to fight against the Republicans instead of solving problems.
I like what Adam Schiff did previously for the country, but I did not like the tactics he did for this election against Porter. Yah, I get that it’s politics. But if he needed to boost a Republican in order to not go against another Democrat in the fall, then maybe he’s not the best person to represent California.
Now, there’s a chance Steve Garvey could win the Senate seat in November. It’s a very, very small chance, but it’s not zero. Why take that chance when it’s so important?
I hope Katie Porter does not go away. She’s exactly what this country needs. The only thing I didn’t like is that her campaign pretty much copied Schiff’s after he did this. She’s must’ve known it was hurting her too much.
Well said. It was very selfish of Schiff. Schiff vs Porter in November would’ve been a win win. Boosting a crazy Republican is an awful decision and is a tactic that’s already come back to bite us.
Turning out a bunch of Democrats to vote would have helped down ballot too.
She was up against BIG pac money and couldn’t battle that demon (literally).
I’m referring to a D vs. D general election having benefits on D vs. R downballot races. Big PAC money didn’t want to risk someone winning who would threaten their personal finances if the only cost was potentially electing more Republicans.
Porter responding to blunt dirty tactics is very different from her opponent initiating dirty tactics. Progressives don’t benefit from unilaterally disarming. The motivation and cause is very different.
I’m a California constituent, and the idea of Adam Schiff representing me over Katie Porter makes me physically ill.
And thousands of others prefer it, apparently.
Do they? Or does spending millions of dollars campaigning simply effectively manipulate?
The media is a powerful tool, controlled basically exclusively by money.
How do you define manipulate VS convince?
Spreading lies vs the truth?
Just a guess.
Were there any lies spread in this case then?
You asked how I’d define it so I did.
I’d be careful of this “I am immune to propaganda” line of thinking.
You’re basically accusing everyone who didn’t vote the way you wanted of being brainwashed fools, and that’s how the progressive bloc spectacularly failed to capture the black vote in 2016 and 2020.
If your line of thinking forgets that the other person is a person who is actively making decisions, and who’s agency is not changed for deciding differently than you did, you’re wrong.
That’s how we get white progressives insisting that gun toting Redcaps will totally join the progressive cause if the gays and the POC and the women would all just shut up and stop talking about identity politics.
You’re reading a lot into things I did not say.
An appeal to popularity without a critical eye on the impact of massive media spending is far more dangerous than what you’re accusing me of.
You’re reading a lot into things I did not say.
It’s what he does.
I liked both of them for different reasons. Yes I wanted Porter to win because I believed in her convictions to progressive policy, but if you watched the January 6th hearings, Schiff was fucking amazing.
I was a huge fan before and after the hearings. He was great. I am far, far, less of a fan after seeing this cynical and slimy campaign.
Just because a broken clock is right twice a day doesn’t mean it’s a good reliable clock.
I think that’s a cute phrase but I don’t accept its application here. For example, one could say Porter’s viral whiteboards was a broken-clock. Her campaign strategy just wasn’t very effective. Even I as a supporter barely heard a blip from her that just last month I had to Google what’s going on. Her debate performance wasn’t that great either.
I’d rather they both be in Congress from different positions.
Now, the vaccuum left by Porter as the article points out jeopordizes our congressional prospects further.
Pettily downvote all you want.
Her campaign was outspent by a lot because Schiff was backed by big money pac. And he did it in a scummy way.
I stand behind my usage of the broken clock adage.
What “big money pac” are you referring to? I’m looking at the data for both Porter and Schiff and they both received PAC money…
Schiff still out-raised Porter in individual campaign contributions — both big, and small.
Political Action Committees aren’t really a problem. SuperPACs are.
I don’t understand how this is allowed. Why are they being allowed to manipulate ballots to push someone out? Paying to prop up a dummy candidate to manipulate ballots is extremely corrupt to me, unless I’m missing something.
Schiff’s ads were attack ads on Garvey. Calling Garvey the MAGA conservative who votes for Trump and is dangerous for California. The ads implied that Garvey was a serious threat in the race. Garvey is famous in California for playing first base for the LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the 80s and 90s, but his campaign was bootstrapped so the schiff attack ads helped.
Katie, I’m going to give you the same advice that Jen Barkley gave to Leslie.
Get a better job! Don’t be the kid that graduates high school and hangs out in the school parking lot. Be the woman who moves away, climbs the ladder, and confidently comes back, and has sex with their hot old English teacher just for kicks.
We need people like you. Do not give up. If you run for President in 2028, I will volunteer!
I’m sorry she lost. People like her, Rachel Bitecofer, AOC must be the future of the party.
I’m not even from there, and I’d want to vote for this woman and for AOC.
I feel like it would be good to have more women in power in general, like Jacinda Arden, Yulia Tymoshenko, Sanna Marin. I was super hoping for Magdalena Andersson for prime minister, but we got Ulf Kristersson as CEO instead…
:/
It was only a matter of time after she embarrassed the banks.
Progressive candidates do not thrive in an open democracy.
Did you just accidentally misspell ‘oligarchy’?
Wait, what? Yes they do? What “open democracy” are you referring to?
It sounds edgy enough and it’s defeatist, so it’s going to be upvoted.
Best way to describe the state of politcal Lemmy comments at the moment.
Just like in an open democracy…
My 2¢ - she just didn’t do a good job of getting her name out there with many Californians. Her name recognition is big with the wonks and the people in her district, but the people that bested her were doing a better job of getting their names out there. She’s a better candidate, but she didn’t run as good of a campaign.
Ads cost big money, and if your opponent is well-funded by super-rich pacs … well, you lose.
The money is the issue, and the powerful have most of it.
Fair point.
The lack of press is what stood out to me the most. But if I think about it for a sec, Schiff managed Trump’s impeachment, he was on the Jan 6 committee, etc. So when the press wants to talk to a democrat about Trump’s crimes, they often knock on his door. He is a talking head that people pulled anytime Trump’s name came up - which happens all the damn time.
Porter not only had to run the ads and buy the mailers, but she needed a way to compete with the organic press that Schiff was going to get. And she wasn’t able to pull that off.
Move to WI Run for Senate.
Her kind of no nonsense politics really sells in the Midwest.
Damn. I loved her white board slapdowns.
She had my vote mar 5th
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We don’t want to solve these problems.
Most people think the disparity in wealth should grow, so that’s what it does.
I have no hope for civilization and just look out for myself and those close to me, now.
As I tell my kids. There’s no reason to like the game, and spend your entire lives doing what you can to change it for the better, but while you’re doing that, and to change the game, you’re going to have to play it as best you can.
We’re not going to change to a utopia overnight, it has to be one little change at a time and people have to work to get to the place to make those changes first.
I’m not sure most people think that. But the ones with money and power do.
Most people definitely think that.
It’s how history continues to repeat itself.
Most people with power definitely think that.
Fixed it for you.
Most people think the game can’t change or shouldn’t be changed. They’re a much bigger issue than the people trying to get by who think the game can be changed.
Nah. We can pick the game, but we cannot change the rules.
I’d rather play a different game than the one I’ve been playing for the past 10+ years with no satisfactory results.
Can’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results.
No, the rules are (mostly) open to change, but you don’t get to pick a new game. Physics is what it is, the immutable ground rules of the game, and it’s the only game in town. Everything above that, the social reality that is most of what people think about and engage with, can be changed, but you do have to invest a lot of energy to shift the inertia of the existing system.
Of course you can change the rules. Or even better you can change the game.
Rule 1 of life … never play somebody else’s game by somebody else’s rules 'cause you’ll lose every time.
If they did, the rich would be running influence campaigns on it rather than making up other bullshit to distract people.
How history continues to repeat itself? Really? Guess I’ll just put my magic glowey rock that speaks messages in an as of yet to be invented script that will never exist and ride off into the sun set on my bronze age chariot to defend my home from the sea peoples!
This is such a myopic view of history it borders on “measels aren’t so bad! There hasn’t been a major death from it in decades! That’s why I don’t vax!”
All I know is I received so many daily texts and emails from her campaign begging for money that it seriously turned me off, and I don’t even live in CA.
We don’t want facts, we want the TRUTH damnit!
