Democrat U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff bested Republican and former baseball star Steve Garvey in the race for California’s U.S. Senate seat, according to The Associated Press, which called the race at 11 p.m. ET, even before the results were in.

The coveted senate seat, held for decades by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died at age 90 on Sep. 29, 2023, is currently held by Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.). She was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom but did not seek reelection.

Garvey earned the second spot in the state’s top-two jungle primary on Super Tuesday, March 5, trailing Schiff by 3,478 votes. A total of 7.3 million votes were cast statewide for voters’ choices among the more than 27 candidates—not including write-ins—in the primary, leaving Schiff with 31.6 percent of the vote and Garvey with 31.5 percent.

Garvey’s Campaign

Known as a star player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and later with the San Diego Padres in a career that spanned from 1969 to 1987, Garvey’s opponents had a field day with baseball analogies in the first and second televised debates on Jan. 22 and Feb. 14 before the primary.

Garvey was grilled by Schiff and two other Democrats, U.S. Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, because he voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Schiff said Garvey’s first debate performance was a “whiff,” and Porter said, “once a dodger, always a dodger,” when Garvey appeared to be in a hot box over his reluctance to admit that he had voted for Trump.

“This is not the minor leagues,” Porter said. “Who will you vote for?”

“I think when we vote for a president, and he’s duly elected, I believe we should support that president, support the office, because that’s the leader of the United States, the free world,” Garvey said.

In the second debate, Garvey pushed back against Schiff for his relentless barbs about Garvey voting for Trump, calling out Schiff for his allegations to Congress in what has been referred to as the “Russia hoax.”

“I think you’ve been censured for lying,” Garvey said.

“I was censured for standing up to a corrupt president, and you know something, I would do it all over again,” Schiff replied.

“Sir, you lied to 300 million people. You can’t take that back,” Garvey said.

Schiff’s Censure

Schiff came under the national media spotlight for his role in then-President Trump’s first impeachment trial and was later censured by the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2023 for making unsubstantiated claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia and for Schiff’s leading role in the Trump–Russia probe.

The censure, a formal reprimand of a member’s conduct, which passed with a 213–209 vote, stated that neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor the House investigations in 2017 found any evidence of collusion or criminal conspiracy.

As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time, Schiff “perpetuated false allegations from the Steele Dossier accusing numerous Trump associates of colluding with Russia into the Congressional Record,” according to the censure, House Resolution 521.

“Whereas for years, Representative Schiff abused this trust by alleging he had evidence of collusion that, as is clear from reports by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and Special Counsel Durham, never existed,” the resolution states.

Schiff was a California state senator from 1996 to 2000 and has served in the U.S. House since 2001.

A ‘Unique’ Race

Garvey led a relatively quiet campaign. He was noticeably absent from Trump’s only California rally in Coachella and the California Republican party’s spring convention in Burlingame in May.

Trump declined to endorse Garvey at a campaign stop at his golf course in Rancho Palo Verdes, California, on Sept. 13. He told reporters that Garvey had “no chance” of winning without the Make America Great Again movement behind him.

“I don’t know much about Steve Garvey,” Trump said. “I think he’s made a big mistake because he hasn’t reached out to MAGA.”

When asked if not reaching out to Trump’s campaign hurt his chances of winning, Garvey told KCRA 3 in an Oct. 30 interview that his race was “very unique,“ that he knew ”it was going to be extremely difficult” and for that reason, he sought the endorsements of only “police and sheriffs and first-responders.”

Border Crisis

In the first debate, Schiff said the immigration system is broken but that immigrants who have fled violence and are seeking asylum in the United States deserve respect and dignity.

“It is a crisis. It is unsustainable, but we should approach this with compassion, and we should also try to get people to apply for asylum safely from their home countries,” he said.

Garvey, who has advocated closing the border, criticized all three of his Democrat opponents early in the debate.

“First of all, if you break the law, it’s illegal. Second of all, where have you all been the last three years?” he asked. “We have a pathway to citizenship. Let’s enforce it.”

Illegal border crossings have increased by more than tenfold over the past few years, and illegal immigrants are bringing drugs, cartels, and human trafficking with them, he said.

In the second debate, on Feb. 14, Schiff called for “order at the border” but said Trump’s border wall was a “draconian solution.” He argued that the Biden administration was taking action to deal with the crisis and said more federal funding was needed to hire more immigration judges to process claims faster so illegal immigrants don’t have to wait for years to have their asylum claims adjudicated.

“I don’t agree with Mr. Garvey, who is promoting Donald Trump’s border wall. That doesn’t work. It’s ineffective. You can cut through that wall,” Schiff said at the time.

Middle East Conflict

In the first debate, in response to a question posed by moderators about the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Garvey said he supported Israel as the greatest U.S. ally in the Middle East and Israel’s right to fight back and defend its sovereignty.

“I stand with Israel yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” he said. “That day was atrocious. Terrorists, while Israelis slept, performed atrocities.”

Schiff said Israel not only has the right to defend itself, but also has a duty to defend its citizens after the brutal murder, rape, and torture of its people at the hands of terrorists.

“The magnitude of that horror is still shocking to me, and I think the United States should support Israel,” he said. “We can’t leave Hamas governing Gaza.”

Schiff said he supports a two-state solution and suggested that the United States work with Israel to reduce the number of civilian casualties in the conflict.

In April, Garvey held a news conference in Los Angeles, where he urged political leaders to find the “political courage” to shut down anti-Israel demonstrations at more than 200 college campuses across the United States.

The student protests, such as those at the University of Los Angeles–California campus, he said, showed “organized support for terrorism.” More than 200 students—some wearing Palestinian scarves—brought dozens of tents and carried signs that expressed a range of sentiments, from support of the Palestinians and Black Lives Matter to promotion of anti-Zionist and anti-police ideologies.

A Real Clear Politics average of nine polls—four conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)—between Aug. 29 and Oct. 14 had shown Schiff ahead by 22.6 points with 57.3 percent of the vote, but Garvey said in an Oct. 30 “Wake Up America” interview on Newsmax that he was within single-digit percentage points of winning.–

PPIC published a statewide survey in October stating that 63 percent of likely voters supported Schiff over 37 percent for Garvey.