Katie Porter is running for governor of California

from Jeanne KuangCalMatters

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Katie Porter takes her L in stride.

The former Democratic congresswoman from Orange County released an ad this week dedicated to her worst moment so far in her gubernatorial race: a video showing her yelling at an employee who entered the frame of her Zoom interview, telling her to “get off my royal bump.”

The video came out in October after another viral video in which Porter argued with a reporter and threatened to walk out of an interview.

Porter was widely criticized as being unable to control her temper. She took a hit in the polls and hasn’t looked back since.

In the new ad, she mentions it: “Now please get out of my frame?” she says nonchalantly with a crowd of laughing supporters with white boards behind her.

It’s a risk for her campaign, designed to show that Porter can poke fun at herself and doesn’t shy away from talking about her perceived weaknesses. If the screaming incident is the worst thing for her, the ad suggests, there’s nothing to fear.

But it’s also a reminder that she has nothing to lose in the final weeks of a race that has largely passed her by.

Last fall, Porter, a UC Irvine law professor, was one of the most recognizable names in the field, with national liberal accolades for refusing corporate donations, flipping a Republican congressional seat in the blue wave of 2018 and mocking CEOs in congressional hearings.

But progressives who support single-payer health care, free childcare and college tuition and higher taxes on big corporations struggle to maintain a liberal base. Many coveted factions of the state’s Democratic upper house, including major labor unions, have rallied around former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, billionaire Tom Steyer or, at one point, now-disgraced former congressman Eric Swalwell.

Adisu Demisi, a Democratic strategist who managed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2018 campaign and his successful 2021 recall campaign, said he was surprised Porter hadn’t won more Democratic support since Swawell’s departure a month ago. In polls, voters are instead flocking to Becerra, while power players in Sacramento such as Planned Parenthood of California, SEIU, the California Medical Association and the California Teachers Association have split between him and Steyer.

The videos “stop any momentum she might have had,” Demissi said. “That matters in a race like this where fundraising matters and the opinion of the elite certainly matters. I think that made it difficult for her.”

“There’s a perception that women shouldn’t show anger.”

Sacramento State University professor Kimberly Nalder

Porter is now the only woman left in the crowded field of eight, apparently losing the race based on personality. Her fundraising over the past four months has been tepid, with campaign donors giving her just under $3 million — less than she raised in the second half of last year.

For experts, this shows that voters and politicians continue to hold female candidates to a higher standard than male candidates.

“One thing that hurt her was evidence of her anger coming out,” said Sacramento State University professor Kimberly Nalder, who studies gender and politics. “There’s a perception that women shouldn’t show anger, but it’s seen as strong when men do.”

Porter tries calculated restraint

The videos were particularly damaging to Porter, as they seemed to confirm long-standing speculation that she was a harsh boss and a “snarler.”

She is repeatedly asked about them during forums and debates. One political strategist told CalMatters that Porter could provide the “angry woman vote,” but not much else.

Porter said the videotaped incidents were mistakes, that she apologized to the staff member she yelled at, and that they continued to work together. She told the San Francisco Chronicle that the employee recently sent her a message expressing support. Last month, the Washington Post reported that 30 former employees signed an open letter calling the videos “a cartoon built from a few clips on a bad day.” The organizer of the letter, Maine congressional candidate Jordan Wood, did not respond to an interview request made to his campaign.

In recent weeks, she has tried to answer questions about temperament more directly. During two televised debates in the past two weeks, she made calculated displays of restraint, holding back several times as the other candidates – all men – jostled around her and at times interrupted her.

“I can’t believe that on a stage with 30 minutes of disruption and fighting and insults and screaming and disrespecting everyone here who goes into public service, somebody wants to talk about my temperament,” she said during a debate Tuesday night on CNN.

“Actually, you’re interrupting them too,” replied Republican candidate Chad Bianco, though Porter had waited for the moderators to call her out.

In an interview last month, Porter did not say whether she thought sexism had stopped her, but said that as the only woman in the race and a single mother of three, she related to voters.

“I can’t comment on how each voter thinks about everything,” she said. “Women understand better what it’s like to push a shopping cart, what it’s like to have to write that check for that permit. Those are the decisions I’ve made. I think I have the ability to connect with Californians just because I’m a mom.”

Progressives have questions

She also struggled to attract solid liberal support as she appeared wavering on key progressive issues.

In Congress, Porter has been a vocal supporter of Medicare for all, but last year she told Politico that single-payer health care was unrealistic for California.

The proposal is expected to cost the state nearly $400 billion and would need approval from the federal government — it didn’t launch with President Donald Trump. Yet support for single-payer remains a progressive rallying cry and a litmus test for the left.

At the state Democratic convention this spring, Porter turned again and resumed its support for single-payer.

She also raised eyebrows by courting the support of billionaire crypto manager Chris Larsen, who is spending his money this year fighting proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy. he donated to Porter’s campaign last year before withdrawing his support in March when she endorsed a San Francisco ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations with high-paid CEOs. Larsen, who supports Republican Steve Hilton, declined to comment through a spokesman.

And she shocked labor leaders last month when she criticized the state’s farm overtime law. In a room full of farmers in Fresno, she won applause when she said regulations like the law that gives farmworkers overtime after 8 hours each day “makes no sense.” Manufacturers have been trying to repeal or limit this law for years; early studies have found many responded by cutting workers’ hours and hiring other contractors.

Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor, which has jointly endorsed Porter, Steyer and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said Porter had previously given the federation a mixed response on farmworker rights.

The comments sparked a flurry of phone calls over the weekend with union leaders before Porter made it clear on social media that he supported the eight-hour workday.

“It was an educational experience for her,” said Gonzalez, who said she agreed that Porter was judged too harshly on temperament as a female candidate. “You can’t just be told something by the business and just change your position on something, especially without coming and talking to us.”

Labor groups were also confused earlier this year when an independent political group supporting Porter’s candidacy received a $150,000 donation from Uber, which also gave to Hilton and a group supporting Souwell. In response, the California Teamsters, which supported Porter but opposed the autonomous driving that Uber supports, withdrew their $100,000 contribution. The union spent that money on its own ads supporting Porter.

A spokesman for the political action committee, Danny Kazin, did not respond to questions about who directs the PAC’s activities. Uber spokesman Zahid Arab did not respond to questions about the PAC or explain why the company supported Porter.

Porter denied that soliciting business support hurt her standing among progressives.

“I’m going to talk to every Californian, every union, every business, every nonprofit, every legal entity, every local leader,” she said. “The manager’s job is to listen and learn and then make good decisions. I think it’s important to talk to organizations, including ones I haven’t had the opportunity to work with before.”

Meanwhile, many progressives — even those who had previously supported Porter — flocked to Steyer. Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-Cupertino, was one of Steyer’s earliest progressive supporters in the race. Two years ago, he endorsed Porter in her bid for a U.S. Senate seat, but said Steyer won it this year in a campaign against the “corporate status quo.”

“I have no regrets about endorsing Katie Porter for the US Senate, where I think she would be a great senator,” Lee said in a text message.

Steyer had previously opposed single-payer, but in December became an ardent supporter, earning him the endorsement of the Nurses Association. The state’s two major teacher unions also support him, and SEIU has jointly endorsed him and Becerra.

“It’s disappointing to me that some organizations and people that I really respect don’t support Katie, they support Steyer,” said Sal Rosselli, president emeritus of the National Health Workers Union, a longtime Porter supporter.

Rosselli said he anticipated some of Porter’s perceived weaknesses and said it’s good that “she’s not as tight in Sacramento.” He said he hopes Porter’s new ad targeting the video will help turn things around.

“If a person did that, it wouldn’t happen in terms of this reaction,” he said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.