Democratic Rep. Katie Porter will win re-election in California’s 47th Congressional District, CNN projects, after facing a tougher-than-expected race against Republican Scott Boe.
Porter’s victory in the coastal Orange County district gives Democrats another seat in the next session — as of Friday morning, they had won 212 seats. But that won’t change CNN’s prediction that Republicans will control the chamber in January. Five House races that could affect the chamber’s partisan makeup next year remain unreported by CNN as of Friday morning.
Porter, a former law professor, appeared to be among the best placed in California heading into the 2022 cycle because of her extraordinary fundraising prowess and her national popularity in the Democratic base after tough investigations of Wall Street titans and Trump administration officials in congressional hearings.
Porter, who was first elected during the 2018 “blue wave,” is widely seen as a potential successor to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein if she decides to retire, particularly after Porter amassed a war chest of more than $20 million for her re-election campaign of this cycle. But in a tough political climate for Democrats, she was forced to spend much of that cash. California’s redistricting process also added a complication for the congresswoman: After the new congressional map shuffled seats in Orange County, Porter had to run in a new district that still included her hometown of Irvine, but where she featured the herself in about two-thirds. of voters in the district.
Baugh, a former California state Assembly minority leader, aptly said he wasn’t afraid of Porter’s campaign cash. He ran on a platform of small government and “ending bloated government programs that have outlived their usefulness” – while trying to address voters’ concerns about inflation and crime. He also said he opposes drilling off the coast of California.
Baugh argued that Porter was “working to dismantle our capitalist economy, punish taxpayers, and increase the reach and power of the federal government,” while embracing a future based on “lower taxes, more freedom, and strong borders.”
Once chairman of the Orange County GOP, Baugh lost a bid for Congress in 2018 from a different district than the one Porter ran that year.
