Katie Porter, a Democratic former House member, has campaigned to become California’s first female governor by highlighting her progressive bona fides and her status as a minivan-driving single mother. But she has so far failed to break through with voters, and polling has showed her hovering around fifth place.
Here are five things to know about Ms. Porter, 52.
1. She built her profile in Congress by grilling wealthy corporate executives, a trusty whiteboard by her side. Ms. Porter, who was a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, used skills from her job to question pharmaceutical chiefs and big bank leaders about income inequality, often writing out simple equations on whiteboards to help viewers on TV or social media understand her arguments — and to make her targets look out of touch.
2. In 2018, she flipped a House district in Orange County that had long been known as conservative territory. Ms. Porter was elected as part of the so-called blue wave that swept over California, largely in reaction to President Trump’s ascendance. But she managed to hang onto the seat, even as other Democratic House members who were elected at the same time were replaced by Republicans. As she has run for statewide office, she has emphasized her crossover appeal to members of both political parties.
3. She clashed with California’s Democratic leaders when she ran for Senate in 2024. Although speculation about Senator Dianne Feinstein’s retirement had been rampant for years, Ms. Porter said she would seek to replace Ms. Feinstein, the eminent California Democrat, before Ms. Feinstein herself announced that she wouldn’t run again. That was just one way Ms. Porter rankled the state’s powerful Democratic establishment. She also left open a vulnerable House seat — though Democrats have held it. And after losing in a bruising primary, she complained about her party’s strategy in backing her top rival, Adam Schiff, who is now a senator.
4. Her campaign for governor never recovered after viral videos showed her berating an aide and belittling a TV reporter. Even before Ms. Porter ran for governor, she had been dogged by criticism of her treatment of staff members and her brusque manner. Then, in October, two videos went viral that showed her behaving in a way that political analysts said seemed to confirm those beliefs about her temperament. Ms. Porter has since apologized and directly confronted questions about her demeanor in televised debates. Her supporters have blamed sexist double standards for Ms. Porter’s inability to recover momentum. But her opponents have said that the controversy highlights flaws in her political judgment.
5. She has earned endorsements from some of California’s top news outlets. An endorsement from a news outlet’s editorial board may not make much of a difference in today’s polarized media environment. But major outlets across the state, including The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee, have notably backed Ms. Porter. It was her policy chops that put her above the rest, the outlets said. “At her core, Porter is a wonk with an independent streak and a holistic view of governance and leadership,” The Chronicle’s editorial board wrote.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
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