California Rep. Adam Schiff speaks about the Protecting our Democracy Act, which he introduced to the House in 2021. Schiff, who is a Democrat, advanced in the primary for California’s special Senate election on March 5 along with former professional baseball player and Republican Steve Garvey. (Provided by schiff.house.gov)

Rep. Adam Schiff and former professional baseball player Steve Garvey advanced in the primary for the special Senate election in California on March 5.

Garvey, a Republican, and Democrats Schiff, Rep. Katie Porter and Rep. Barbara Lee contested the seat formerly held by Dianne Feinstein, who died in office in September 2023. Under California’s nonpartisan blanket primary system, the top two finishers in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

As of March 15, Garvey had won 33.5% of the votes cast, Schiff 29.6%, Porter in third at 17.1% and Lee in fourth with 11.3%. While Schiff trailed Garvey by more than a quarter of a million votes, California’s status as a solidly-blue state means that Schiff is widely expected to win in the special election, as votes for the other Democratic candidates, such as the progressive Lee, will most likely coalesce around Schiff. If Schiff wins November’s election, California will not be represented by a female senator for the first time since 1992.

Civil Discourse Club member Timothy Deng (10) noted the reasons behind Schiff’s victory over the other Democratic candidates and the primary’s implications for the Senate election in November.

“One of his big selling points was ‘tough on Trump,’” Timothy said. “Schiff also ran campaign ads highlighting Garvey to push him into second. Incidentally, I believe he got an endorsement from Speaker Pelosi as well. So against Garvey, Schiff is almost guaranteed to win the Senate seat.”

Following projections by major news networks that Garvey and Schiff would advance, Porter conceded the primary but also claimed that “an onslaught of billionaires spen[t] millions to rig this election.” Her comments immediately drew backlash from other Democrats, including California Sen. Alex Padilla and Schiff himself. Timothy explained that Porter’s anti-corporate political action committee stances played a factor in her blaming Schiff’s donors for her loss.

“Katie Porter is extremely anti-establishment and against corporate interests. Throughout the race, she [accused] Schiff about being soft on that sort of thing and accepting large sums from those big donors,” Timothy said. “While his strategy might not be ‘moral’ strictly, it’s entirely within the realm of what is allowed, so there’s no justification to say the election was rigged, and it’s rather hypocritical coming from the progressive camp given how vocal they have been criticizing Trump. Although it was a definite faux pas on her part, I do think the outcry was excessively censorious.”

On the same day, President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump dominated each of their parties’ Super Tuesday presidential primaries, held in 16 states and one territory. Biden won every state but lost to entrepreneur Jason Palmer in American Samoa, while Trump also won all the states except for Vermont, where former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley edged out Trump in an upset victory, becoming the first woman to win a state presidential primary.

Haley dropped out of the Republican primary but did not endorse Trump, instead challenging the former president to earn the votes of her supporters despite a pledge to the Republican National Committee she signed that she would back the eventuall Republican nominee. During her campaign, Haley heavily criticized Trump for his policies and his age, whom she often compared to Biden. 

Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and both he and Biden officially won the majority of delegates they needed on Tuesday, setting up the first presidential election rematch since 1956. Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics student Katherine Fields (12) believes that Trump’s overwhelming victories suggest the Republican Party has made a fundamental shift in its identity and base.

“The Republican party is now Trump’s party,” Katherine said. “Nikki Haley was the traditional conservative Republican candidate that we would have seen in the past years, but that’s obviously not what a majority of Republicans really want anymore. Trump has just amassed so much of a following and so much support that he’s basically the incumbent within his own party.”

Following Haley’s announcement, Biden welcomed Haley’s supporters and stated that they had a place in his campaign. History teacher Jonathan Rim agreed that Trump had become the main figure for the Republican party in recent years, but warned that those faithful to Haley could draw votes away from him in the presidential election, especially in certain swing states that could decide the outcome of the race.

“I was surprised at a certain exit poll that said a majority [of Haley voters] would not vote for Trump, so if they vote for Biden or don’t vote at all, they could harm Trump in November,” Rim said. “[The presidential election] is going to come down to these five or six battleground states that could make a difference, and it’s gonna be really tight.”

Rim also speculated that Haley’s careful choice of words in her suspension speech could be an indication of her future political ambitions, such as another presidential primary campaign in four years’ time.

“I definitely think she could be preparing for a run in 2028,” Rim said. “By not endorsing Trump, Haley’s positioning herself. She’s caught in a tough place because she doesn’t want to upset the Trump base of voters for potentially the next presidential election, but at the same time she doesn’t want to upset the more old school Republicans with those traditional conservative values.”