A whiteboard made Katie Porter a star. Can it carry her to the U.S. Senate? | Opinion
Long before they knew her name, even casual followers of congressional politics had heard about the woman with the whiteboard.
It’s remarkable, really, how a freshman lawmaker from Irvine, California, managed to elevate a humble teaching tool into a weapon used to skewer rich and powerful executives from Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Banking.
In the process, Rep. Katie Porter became one of the most recognizable members of Congress. She wasn’t the only new lawmaker asking the tough questions, but she was often the one who got noticed by the media.
“Let’s give a hand to freshman Rep. Katie Porter, who elicited the most damning detail,” The Washington Post wrote after a particularly grueling Congressional session led to the resignation of former Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan.
“Number-cruncher: the devastating power of Katie Porter’s whiteboard,” was the headline of a complimentary piece in The Guardian.
“She and her whiteboard are just getting started,” Vanity Fair predicted in 2021.
Porter is no longer a newcomer to national politics. She’s in her third term in the House and is running to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate.
The question is, can whiteboarding carry Porter to the November run-off? And if so, will she be able to defeat the current front-runner, Rep. Adam Schiff?
Porter is convinced she can. “Adam Schiff knows he will lose to me in November,” she recently tweeted.
Right now, though, she’s locked in a battle for second place with, of all people, former professional baseball player Steve Garvey. A Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman in the 1970s and 80s, Garvey has zero political experience.
A ‘bully with a whiteboard’
While many liberals see Porter as a rising star, to conservatives she’s a showboater who constantly plays to the camera.
“Porter is toxic, obnoxious, overly ambitious, and arrogant,” The Washington Examiner wrote last year. “Katie Porter may manage to be the worst and most toxic person in a race that includes Rep. Adam Schiff.”
The criticism isn’t just coming from the right; one of Porter’s former Democratic colleagues has spoken out against her as well.
Harley Rouda, a former congressman from Orange County who served one term with Porter, called her “a bully with a whiteboard who is in this for power and her ego.”
“The last thing we need is more self-centered politicians like Katie Porter,” he wrote in an op-ed for Porter’s local newspaper, The Orange County Register
There is no doubt that Porter is a tough questioner who frequently embarrasses — and sometimes humiliates — witnesses. She is, after all, a skilled attorney.
But does that make her a bully? And if so, would a man with a whiteboard come under similar scrutiny? Possibly — but in all likelihood it would be to a lesser degree.
‘A tendency to ruffle feathers’
It isn’t just her treatment of industry leaders testifying before Congress that’s drawn attention. Porter also has a reputation for alienating colleagues by challenging the status quo.
The LA Times raised the issue back in 2021, following a minor confrontation between Porter and Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters over Porter’s use of visual aids during committee hearings.
“In an institution fueled by seniority and relationships — especially within one’s own party — Porter’s tendency to ruffle feathers could cost her the allies...,” the Times wrote.
Porter continues to ruffle feathers.
She’s campaigned against earmarks, which are near and dear to most lawmakers.
She’s been accused of letting down her party by choosing to run for the Senate instead of staying in the House, giving the GOP — which remains strong in Orange County — an opportunity to win her seat and reducing the chance that Democrats will be able retake the House.
“After winning, what does Katie do?” Rouda asked in his op-ed. “She served a total of three days before announcing she was abandoning her constituents and running for the U.S. Senate.”
‘She would make an extraordinary POTUS’
Porter’s fans don’t care about questions of protocol, however. To them, she’s a rock star or as some describe her, a “bad ass” who seems destined for the White House.
“Even us Canadians love this lady! She would make an extraordinary POTUS,” one supporter posted on YouTube.
First, though, there’s the little matter of the Senate race.
The most recent poll conducted in late January had Porter tied for second place with Garvey and Schiff out in front.
A ‘cynical’ boost for Garvey?
Schiff has the support of the Democratic establishment; 75% of California’s Democratic Congressional Delegation, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, endorsed him. Only one member of the delegation has endorsed Porter.
Schiff has consistently led in the polls and he’s way ahead in fundraising. He started the year with $35 million in campaign cash, compared to Porter’s $13 million.
He’s been spending his millions not only to bolster his own image, but also to elevate Garvey’s chances in the hope that Garvey — a much weaker candidate — would wind up on the November ballot instead of Porter. By portraying Garvey as a Trump supporter who is “too conservative for California,” Schiff’s ads aim to make Garvey more attractive to GOP voters.
Porter denounced it as a “brazenly cynical” move, but the ads aren’t going away. Political action committees supporting Schiff are pushing a similar message.
Standing Strong PAC has started broadcasting an ad on Fox News warning that if Garvey wins “he could tip the balance of the Senate into Republican hands.”
That’s music to the ears of Fox News listeners.
The youth card
Porter, 50, does have youth on her side, and that’s a plus to voters who don’t want a repeat of what happened with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who stayed in office despite concerns about her mental and physical competence.
Porter is the only non-boomer among the top candidates. Rep. Barbara Lee is 77, Garvey is 75 and Schiff is 63. In opinion surveys, Porter has done well with Democrats under 40, while Democrats over 65 prefer Schiff to Porter by a 3-1 margin. Yet some older voters also are considering the age factor.
“Rep. Katie Porter does not, in my view, rise above either Schiff or Lee,” a 66-year-old voter wrote to The San Francisco Chronicle, “but she is talented and diligent and Senate-worthy and is young enough to have time to accumulate the seniority which, if wisely used, can do the most for California.”
It’s not just her age that sets Porter apart.
Her status as a single mom of school-age children makes her a rarity in Congress, though she often points out that her situation is not at all unusual in the broader world.
“The normal is actually somebody who’s more like me, who’s juggling and piecing it together,” she told The New York Times shortly after she took office in 2019.
Like the whiteboard, that “juggling and piecing together” has become part of her brand.
“I’m a single mom. The dinner’s burning. I’m late to something. I have 4,000 emails. My hair is frizzy. I haven’t shaved my legs in a week,” she once told comedian Samantha Bee.
Porter’s book, “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan,” also leans heavily into the challenges she’s faced as a single mom.
It opens with a story about how she almost missed the filing deadline to run for Congress in 2020: “The deadline was tomorrow, I was 2,670 miles away from the Orange County Registrar of Voters, and I needed to file in person.”
No whiteboard required
Of course, Katie Porter made the 2020 ballot. But will she make the November 2024 ballot?
It will require a final push to overtake Garvey and the money the Schiff camp is pouring into his campaign in these last few weeks.
It may be time for Katie Porter the whiteboard warrior to show that she has another side — one that knows how to negotiate, to compromise, to smooth feathers, rather than ruffle them.
California needs a fighter in the Senate — a role that Porter is well suited for — but that’s not enough. We also need a politician who can work within the system to deliver for our state.
We need, basically, a lawmaker who can legislate, and Katie Porter should show us that she is that person.
The whiteboard got Porter where she is today, and can certainly remain in her toolbox.
But it’s time for Katie Porter to show us that she doesn’t need a whiteboard to win.
This story was originally published February 16, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "A whiteboard made Katie Porter a star. Can it carry her to the U.S. Senate? | Opinion."
