Jennifer Rubin: What happened to Katie Porter? A lesson for Democrats. [View all]

[Celerity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/11/katie-porter-loser-lessons/

https://archive.is/x01fb



Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) entered the House in 2018 as one of the impressive Democratic women elected in a wave of anger and shock over the election of now-four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) continues to shine as a foreign policy guru; Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), also known for her national security expertise, is the favorite for her state’s open Senate seat. And Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) has become an all-around moderate star and leading candidate for governor in 2025. But Porter gave up her House seat, lost badly in her Senate primary, cried “rigged” and is going home with the reputation of a sore loser. What happened?

Starting with the sorry ending, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), revered among Democrats for leading the first Trump impeachment, ran a near-perfect Senate campaign. Embracing the mantle of anti-Trump pugilist, he stuck to his center-left positions. He slammed the unqualified right-winger and former Dodger Steve Garvey as too conservative in the nonpartisan “jungle primary.” Schiff will be the overwhelming favorite in November to trounce Garvey. On election night, Porter bitterly denounced her Democratic rival. “We had the establishment running scared — withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election,” she said. That smacked of election denial, an absolute no-no in a party that believes in the sanctity of elections. Withering criticism poured down on her. She retorted, “‘Rigged’ means manipulated by dishonest means.” She claimed she had been referring to “dark money”:

Link to tweet

Democrats viewed her as doubling down, refusing to apologize for her tantrum. Her holier-than-thou promise not to accept dark money had not resonated during the campaign; now she smeared a legal and widely used fundraising tool that Democrats cannot renounce until they reverse Citizens United v. FEC and enact real campaign finance reform. Moreover, she was still fighting the primary, not rallying to her party. Fairly or not, her exit will likely define her career as much as her whiteboard, which she skillfully wielded against witnesses from banks, Big Pharma and other hapless victims. But, in the end, the whiteboard was not enough — and therein Democrats can find several lessons.

First, Democrats, unlike their MAGA opponents, believe government is there to get things done. Public service is not performance art for them. Viral moments must serve larger goals that are usually achieved by the hard work of dealmaking, compromising and collaborating. Though Porter shined in YouTube clips, her output could not compare with many of her 2018 classmates. The latter became experts in certain topics and associated with important policies (e.g., national security, gun reform). The difference between Porter and her mentor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who also wins kudos for sharp questioning, was striking. Porter was not known for “reaching across the aisle” to get things done. By contrast, Warren features this prominently on her website:

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