LOS ANGELES (AP) — The crowded 2024 contest to fill the seat of retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is considered wide open, but U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff has built a substantial fundraising edge over his chief rivals, federal records showed Monday.
Schiff, a Southern California Democrat who rose to national prominence as the lead prosecutor in then-President Donald Trump’s announced that he had raised $8.1 million over the past three months, ending with nearly $30 million in his campaign stockpile.
According to government records, his tally was followed by of Orange County, who reported raising over $3.1 million from April through June, and ended the period with about $10.4 million on hand in her campaign treasury.
That total gives Schiff a nearly 3-to-1 edge in campaign funds over Porter, although the March primary is still months away.
U.S. Rep. from Oakland, another Democratic House member in the race, reported raising about $1 million over the three-month period and ended the quarter with $1.4 million on hand in her campaign account, well behind Schiff and Porter.
Former Google executive , a Democrat who entered the race in June as a virtual unknown, reported about $1.1 million in contributions, but that included over $280,000 she gave to her campaign, government filings showed. She ended the quarter with $625,000 on hand.
“We don’t need more career politicians scoring political points. We need efficient problem solvers in the Senate," Reese said in a statement announcing the fundraising figures.
It typically takes tens of millions of dollars to wage a successful statewide campaign in vast California, which includes some of the nation’s most expensive media markets. Recent polling has found the leading Democrats — Schiff, Porter and Lee — in a competitive race.
With the centrist Feinstein in the twilight of her career, the race is shaping up as a showcase for an ambitious, younger generation on the party’s left wing.
The seat is expected to stay in Democratic hands — a Republican hasn’t won a Senate race in the state since 1988. In California’s last two Senate races, only Democrats advanced to the general election under the state’s top-two election system, in which only the top two primary vote-getters face off in November.
Republican , a longshot in the contest who was an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general in 2022 and 2018 and for Congress in 2020, closed his books on June 30 with about $80,000 in the bank. His contributions included a $25,000 loan he made to his political committee.
Former baseball MVP Steve Garvey, another Republican, has said entering the race.
In June, Schiff by the Republican-led House on a party-line vote for comments he made during the investigations into former President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. During that time, the congressman was a frequent presence on TV and rolled out online fundraising pitches, including on the day of the vote when he urged supporters to “become a founding donor” of his Senate campaign.
