LOS ANGELES — Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has a California Republican Senate rival, Steve Garvey , about where he wants him, hovering around second place.
The Golden State’s “top two” Senate primary on March 5 will send the first- and second-place finishers to the Nov. 5 general election ballot. With polls showing Schiff leading, second place for Garvey, a retired All-Star first baseman who played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1969-82 and then the San Diego Padres from 1983-87, would give the congressman high odds of winning in the deep-blue state.
That would be the case for either of the other big-name Democrats running for Senate, Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. But it’s Schiff, arguably former President Donald Trump’s most prominent congressional antagonist over the last seven years, who is leading in virtually all recent California Senate polls.
The campaign of Schiff, first elected to the House in 2000, clearly recognizes the benefit of running against Garvey in November. After all, California is the original ‘Trump resistance’ home, and in 2020, the then-president lost to that year’s winner, President Joe Biden, by a nearly 2-1 margin.