California voters did what was widely expected and elected Rep. Adam Schiff, a Jewish Democrat, in the senate race to replace the late Dianne Feinstein, another Jewish Democrat, who died while in office last year after serving in the role for more than 30 years.
Schiff, who currently represents parts of greater Los Angeles in the US House of Representatives, defeated Steve Garvey, a former star baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had hoped to beat the odds and become the first Republican to be elected to a statewide office in California in 18 years.
Schiff’s victory elevates a lawmaker who largely fits the typical mold of a Jewish Democrat with his pro-Israel politics and an endorsement from the political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Considered a hawk on national security issues, he made his name the same way Feinstein did — serving on a congressional intelligence committee.
The person appointed to serve out Feinstein’s term, Sen. Laphonza Butler, did not run herself.
Schiff became one of the most prominent politicians in the country by confronting Donald Trump during the former president’s impeachments, over which Schiff helped preside, and by formally investigating the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump in turn has treated Schiff as a major nemesis, including by coining for him a nickname which strikes many as antisemitic: “Shifty Schiff.” Trump used the moniker as recently as Monday while vilifying him at a rally in Pittsburgh for his own presidential campaign.
“Adam Shifty Schiff is one of the truly unattractive people,” Trump said. “I call him, ‘watermelon head.’ He’s got the largest head and the smallest neck. He’s not a stupid person but he’s an evil kind of person. He’s likely going to be a senator, unfortunately. This scum is going to be a senator.”
'Enemy within' in Trump's eyes?
Previously, Trump has called Schiff an “enemy from within” and threatened to jail him once in power. He has made similar threats against other members of the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riots.
With Schiff’s victory, California will be represented by two men in the Senate, the other being Alex Padilla, after many years in which the state counted at least one woman senator.
Because Schiff was so heavily favored to win, the Los Angeles Times described the race as “sleepy, bordering on dull.” Schiff spent considerable time stumping for the presidential candidacy of Kamala Harris and raised significant funds for Democrats in various battleground races.
Garvey, who ran a largely low-key campaign, traveled to Israel over the summer to signal his stance on an issue that has assumed increased prominence as a result of the ongoing war initiated on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel.