Former baseball star Garvey faces Democrat Schiff, and long odds, for Senate seat
LOS ANGELES — Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey secured a U.S. Senate showdown with Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff on a shoestring budget and with a wispy campaign schedule, but he now faces a daunting question: What’s next?
Garvey, a perennial All-Star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, expressed optimism about the campaign to come for the seat once occupied by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Still, heavily Democratic California hasn’t elected a GOP Senate candidate since 1988, a year after Garvey retired from baseball. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by a 2-1 margin, and Democrats hold every statewide office and dominate the Legislature and congressional delegation.
“They say in the general election that we’re going to strike out,” Garvey, a first-time candidate, said of his doubters. “Know this: It ain’t over till it’s over.”
It’s a rare opportunity for the GOP to compete in a marquee statewide race in this Democratic stronghold.
Garvey was able to consolidate the Republican vote and sidestep two established Democratic House members, Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, to gain one of two slots on the November ballot with Schiff. His first job will be raising money to operate in a state with some of the nation’s most expensive media markets, but he’s likely to find it a tough sell with donors inclined to spend their money in more competitive states, with control of the House and Senate on the line.
Garvey’s low-key campaign and limited public appearances worked for him in the primary, but voters will be expecting more in a general election. While famously liberal California showed signs of a possible shift to the political right — San Francisco voters showed strong support for a pair of ballot measures that expand police powers and compel treatment for adult welfare recipients who use illegal drugs — Garvey remains a long shot.
“He’s going to have to pitch a positive vision for how he would represent the state,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “You can’t sit out a campaign and expect to have any shot in the general election if you are in the minority party in this state.”
Garvey “is going to have to move beyond the baseball metaphors ... if he really wants to win,” Kousser added.
Garvey celebrated Tuesday with cheering supporters at a hotel in Palm Desert, his hometown, where he warned Schiff not to underestimate him despite the state’s Democratic tilt. He said he would run a campaign that would appeal across party lines, focusing on inflation, the state’s unchecked homeless crisis and rising crime rates in cities.
California puts all candidates, regardless of party, on the same primary ballot and the two who get the most votes advance to the general election. The GOP has failed to advance a candidate to the general election in two of California’s last three U.S. Senate races.
And Garvey will be on the ballot with a GOP presidential ticket likely headed by former President Donald Trump, who is widely unpopular in California outside his loyal base. The last time a Republican won a statewide race of any kind in California was 2006.
The matchup also means that California won’t have a woman in the Senate for the first time in more than three decades.
Schiff enters the race a strong favorite, but he has challenges of his own. His victory party was marred by raucous protesters who shouted “Free Palestine” and “Cease-fire now,” forcing the congressman to attempt to speak over them as they continued bellowing. Schiff took several pauses, and he appeared to hurry his remarks.
Schiff, who has been outspoken in support of Israel’s right to defend itself, shifted Tuesday and endorsed the Biden administration’s call for a Gaza cease-fire as part of a broader agreement that would include the release of hostages. “My position is the same as the administration,” Schiff said. The chaotic scene was a reminder that even in a strongly Democratic state, he will have to carefully navigate the continuing Israel-Hamas war.
He also faces the task of mending relations with supporters of Porter and Lee, two well-known progressives.