Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey will advance to the general election in the hotly contested California Senate race, NBC News projects.
That means Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, who also ran for the seat, will be shut out of the general election. The progressives will also vacate their House seats and leave Congress.
Under California’s rules, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.
In the final stretch of the race, the battle grew ugly between Schiff and Porter, the top-polling Democrats in the race. Schiff cultivated his national profile by battling former President Donald Trump as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Porter, a populist who flipped a former GOP-held district in 2018, ran on a platform of taking on corporate power and addressing working class economic needs like the cost of child care.
Schiff, who led in many polls in the run-up to the contest, has sought to lock out Porter by running ads elevating Garvey in the hope that he will be his opponent in the fall. Democrats are favored to win the general election in the solidly blue state.
By facing Garvey, Schiff will avoid a contentious and expensive intraparty fight this fall.
Lee released a statement Tuesday night as the emerging returns showed her in a distant fourth place, saying she will allow “the time for every ballot cast — every voice — to be counted, and I’m looking forward to watching the results in the coming days.”
“Our campaign has always been about giving a voice to people who don’t feel heard in Washington — and I’m exceptionally proud of the grassroots, multi-ethnic, cross-generational coalition this campaign built across California to send someone who will fight for them and speak truth to power in the Senate,” Lee said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
