Katie Who? Katie Porter, Failed Senate Candidate, Steps Into California Governor’s Race

Granted, California voters DO know who Katie Porter is–an unimpressive former Congresswoman who won a seat in Orange County during the Democrat wave election in 2018. 

She served two terms, and dropped her bid for reelection to take a stab at running for the U.S. Senate in the jungle primary (the top two primary vote-getters move on to the general election, regardless of political party). 

Porter got TROUNCED by Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey, partly because radical Democrats backing Schiff spend oodles of money to destroy her, and mostly because she is dull and a terrible, whiny candidate. After her loss, she declared the election “rigged,” creating outrage from her fellow Democrats because she was diluting the Democrat message against Trump as an insurrectionist. 

Ah, the tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. 

Porter hasn’t had enough of the political life, it seems, and it’s unsurprising given her path in life. She has led quite a privileged one and wants to stake out her position as a certified member of the elite. A graduate of prestigious Phillips Academy, Yale, Harvard Law, and was a student of Elizabeth Warren there. 

Yuck. 

She is joining a crowded field of mostly nonentities, all of whom are watching their backs waiting for the Gorilla in the room to decide whether she will give up her cocktail parties, nonsensical lectures on the speaking circuit, and bring her experience ruining things to California again. 

I speak of Kamala Harris, of course, for whom Porter has already said she would step aside.

Democratic former Rep. Katie Porter is running for governor of California, injecting another well-known name into the race to succeed Gavin Newsom.

“What California needs now is a little bit of hope and a whole lot of grit, fresh blood and new ideas, leaders with the backbone to fight for what’s right,” Porter said in her announcement video. “That’s why I am running for governor.”

Porter is well known after an unsuccessful Senate run last year, and she joins a field that includes a number of other Democrats: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former state Controller Betty Yee, former state legislative leader Tony Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman Stephen Cloobeck. (Newsom is term-limited.)

But a bigger name, former Vice President Kamala Harris, is looming over all of them, and Porter’s plans could change if Harris decides to jump into the race. 

A Porter adviser told NBC News that if Harris decides to run, Porter would back her. But while Harris weighs her options, Porter is launching her own campaign for governor.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Porter is not quite the smooth talker and hasn’t the charismatic presence and slick good looks of Gavin Newsom. She is not as facile a liar as Adam Schiff, which is why she lost to him, nor as plausivly experienced as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. I don’t know anything about the other candidates, but if Porter really is among the best they have then California will continue its slide down the path to doom. 

On second thought, it probably doesn’t matter which candidate wins. California will continue its slide into modern-day feudalism, with a privileged class, a declining middle class, and a growing pool of the destitute. 

Would that it were different. California as a place is glorious, and filled with extremely talented people who keep changing the world. It even has John Sexton!

But it is plagued by a ruling class that is lazy, corrupt, and that has contempt for ordinary people. 

Katie Porter is one of them. Phillips Academy, Yale, and Harvard Law. Those used to be calling cards denoting intelligence and competence. Now they are warning signs. 

Stay away!