Representative Katie Porter, a progressive California Democrat, has been mocked with jokes about her famous whiteboard on social media after she claimed that the Senate primary was “rigged” against her.
Porter vacated her seat in the House, along with Democratic California Representatives Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, for a shot at the seat formerly held by Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, a California Democrat and the longest-serving woman in the U.S. Senate, died in September. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler, the president of abortion rights group EMILY’s List, to fill Feinstein’s seat for the remainder of the term. Butler was sworn into office in October but did not run for a six-year term.
The Senate race in November will be between Schiff and former Major League Baseball star Steve Garvey, who is running on a Republican ticket, after the two of them beat out Porter and Lee in the open primary on Tuesday.
Porter, who trailed Schiff and Garvey by nearly 20 points, claimed afterward that the election was “rigged” by billionaires who spent money on attack ads against her.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty
She wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign and voted to shake up the status quo in Washington. Because of you, we had the establishment running scared—withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.”
In a follow-up post on Thursday, Porter clarified: “‘Rigged’ means manipulated by dishonest means. A few billionaires spent $10 million+ on attack ads against me, including an ad rated ‘false’ by an independent fact checker. That is dishonest means to manipulate an outcome.
“I said ‘rigged by billionaires’ and our politics are—in fact—manipulated by big dark money. Defending democracy means calling that out. At no time have I ever undermined the vote count and election process in CA, which are beyond reproach.”
Newsweek reached out to Porter’s campaign via email for comment.
Social media users mocked Porter for her comments following her loss, referencing a prop she has been known to use to get her points across in Congress—a whiteboard.
Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the news site Daily Wire, replied to Porter’s initial post on Wednesday: “Why don’t you write something on a whiteboard about this.”
Steve Guest, a former communications aide to Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, said on Wednesday: “I updated Katie Porter’s white board for her” and attached a picture of a whiteboard that read: “Statistics predict odds. Voters decide elections. Katie Porter lost.”
Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, replied to Porter’s initial post on Thursday: “It’s amazing how many people today cry ‘rigged’ when the inconvenient reality is you just ran a s***** campaign and are a less impressive politician.”
Others hoped that Porter would support Schiff in the general election.
“Losing hurts. I contributed to your campaign even though I live in NY,” X user @FeedMeHoney wrote. “Am I disappointed that Adam Schiff will be in the Senate? Not at all. He will make a great Senator. You need to get behind him 100%. I will support his election and you should too. Democrats unite!”
X user @ifudontlike2bad wrote: “You should have congratulated Adam Schiff, thanked your voters, thanked your campaign, and said you would work to help get Adam elected because democracy is on the ballot. Then waved. I’m so disappointed.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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