LOS ANGELES — Former Main League Baseball MVP Steve Garvey is advancing to a November election to fill the U.S. Senate seat held for 3 a long time by the late Dianne Feinstein, a uncommon alternative for the GOP to compete in a marquee statewide race in a Democratic stronghold.
Garvey, a 10-time All-Star who performed for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, will face Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
“Let’s have fun,” Garvey instructed his supporters Tuesday night time. “Welcome to the California comeback.”
“What you all are feeling tonight is what it is prefer to hit a walk-off residence run. Sort of like San Diego in 1984.”
Garvey famously hit a walk-off residence run off Lee Smith in Sport 4 to maintain the Padres alive within the 1984 Nationwide League Championship Sequence in opposition to the Chicago Cubs. San Diego then received Sport 5, and Garvey was named collection MVP.
The race is California’s first open U.S. Senate contest since 2016. Even earlier than Feinstein introduced in early 2023 she wouldn’t search reelection, most of the state’s formidable Democrats had been eagerly awaiting their shot on the coveted seat.
Garvey’s candidacy, buoyed by identify recognition amongst older voters particularly, threw an sudden twist into the race. The dynamic between Schiff and U.S. Rep. Katie Porter grew more and more tense within the marketing campaign’s closing weeks as each vied for a basic election spot.
The primary-time candidate Garvey notched his spot on the autumn poll by positioning himself as an outsider working in opposition to entrenched Washington insiders whom he blamed for rising grocery and fuel costs, out-of-reach housing prices and an unchecked homeless disaster in cities.
He owes a debt of because of Schiff and supportive tremendous political motion committees, which ran thousands and thousands of {dollars} in promoting spotlighting Garvey’s conservative credentials, which not directly boosted his visibility amongst Republican and right-leaning voters.
He enters the autumn marketing campaign an extended shot to fill the seat however touted his prospects at successful come November by utilizing one other baseball analogy Tuesday night time.
“Have in mind, that is the primary sport of a doubleheader, so hold the night of Nov. 5 open,” he instructed his supporters. “As a result of we’ll have fun once more.”
The state Republican Get together has been in a decades-long tailspin in closely Democratic California, the place a GOP candidate hasn’t received a U.S. Senate race since 1988 and registered Democrats outnumber Republican voters by a staggering 2-to-1 margin. Republicans did not actually have a candidate on the final election poll within the 2016 and 2018 Senate races.
Garvey is hoping to comply with a pathway lower by different well-known athletes-turned-politicians that features former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a one-time bodybuilder and actor who turned the final Republican to carry the state’s prime job, Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, a former NFL participant, and former skilled basketball nice Invoice Bradley, who turned a long-serving U.S. senator in New Jersey.
He calls himself a “conservative average” and argues he shouldn’t be buttonholed into standard labels, akin to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” political motion.
Garvey has twice voted for Trump, who misplaced California in landslides however stays well-liked amongst GOP voters. Garvey has stated he hasn’t made up his thoughts about this yr’s presidential contest. He personally opposes abortion rights however doesn’t help a nationwide abortion ban and can “all the time uphold the voice of the folks,” alluding to the state’s longstanding tilt in favor of abortion rights.
He has had some tawdry particulars of his private life resurface just lately that undercut the clean-cut public persona he cultivated in his Dodger days.
Data from The Related Press was used on this report.
