Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) wishes she had used a different word to describe her displeasure over her primary loss in the California Senate race after declaring multiple times that it was “rigged.”
Porter came in third place in the jungle primary — where the top two candidates, regardless of party, advance to the general election. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) finished in first with roughly 2.25 million votes, with Republican Steve Garvey close behind with roughly 2.24 million votes, and Porter in a distant third with roughly 1.08 million votes, according to the latest tally.
In the aftermath of her electoral loss, she claimed that the race was “rigged,” or “manipulated by dishonest means,” against her. Schiff had worked to elevate Garvey at the end of the campaign in an apparent hope to box out another Democrat from the general election to be able to coast to victory in November in the reliably Democratic state.
While appearing on the Pod Save America podcast on Tuesday, Porter claimed she wishes she “had chosen a different word” to describe her frustrations, saying it “took away” from two matters with the race.
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) March 19, 2024
“So, obviously, I wish I had chosen a different word, because what happened with the controversy was it took away from two really important truths. One, our California election officials do a terrific job. I have been through competitive, close elections where it has taken days to count, and so I have tremendous respect for them,” Porter said.
She claimed that her use of the term “rigged” had nothing to do with how the election was conducted by the state. Porter appeared to make a contrast with her use of “rigged” to claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters, who have alleged misconduct by election officials to help their respective opponents when using the term.
“The second truth that is really important, that got lost in that, is big money does affect our elections. Outcomes are manipulated and distorted when you have people coming in, spending millions and millions of dollars at the last minute and that money is not disclosed until after the election,” she said.
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Porter has taken issue with the funds used by her opponents to sink her to third place and out of the general election.
Her use of the word “rigged” was denounced by several Democrats — especially with its connotations of Trump’s use of the word when attempting to claim fraud in the 2020 presidential election.