California U.S. Senate election: Garvey vs. Schiff voter guide

One of the most coveted posts in American politics — a California seat in the U.S. Senate — is up for grabs in two different ways this election, with voters being asked to pick both a short-term and long-term replacement for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a Burbank Democrat, and former Dodgers All-Star Steve Garvey, a Palm Desert Republican, are squaring off in a pair of head-to-head matchups on November ballots after earning the first- and second-most votes in a crowded March primary.

Voters will choose Schiff or Garvey to serve out the remainder of Feinstein’s term, which ends in early January, and, separately, to serve a subsequent six-year Senate term.

This is California’s first U.S. Senate race without an incumbent running since 2016, when Vice President Kamala Harris won the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, who had served four terms. Harris is now running for president.

When Harris became vice president in 2021, Newsom appointed Alex Padilla to fill her Senate seat. Padilla won a full six-year term in 2022. When either Schiff or Garvey takes office, California will be without a female senator for the first time in a generation.

Who are the candidates?

Schiff, 64, has represented communities in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley for nearly three decades.

Schiff was an assistant U.S. attorney — a federal prosecutor — before being elected in 1996 to represent a Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena district in the state Senate, which he did for four years. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2001, and is in his 12th term there representing California’s 30th Congressional District — which stretches from Beverly Grove to Pasadena and from Echo Park to the Angeles National Forest.

Schiff served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee between 2019 and 2023, and led the first House impeachment of President Trump over claims that Trump had withheld military aid from Ukraine while pressuring leaders there to announce an investigation into his 2020 Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Schiff also served as the lead prosecutor in the subsequent impeachment trial in the Senate, where Trump was acquitted.

Later, Schiff served on the Jan. 6 committee that investigated an alleged conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election, including with the assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Trump was impeached a second time on charges he incited the insurrection, but again was acquitted by the Senate.

The two impeachments greatly increased Schiff’s national profile. It also turned him into a lightning rod to the political right, with conservatives condemning him for what they viewed as unfair attacks on Trump.

House Republicans censured Schiff in 2023, alleging that he had “purposely deceived” Congress and the American public years prior by claiming there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Subsequent investigations found the Russians did intervene in the election on Trump’s behalf and that his campaign welcomed the help, but did not conclude there’d been a criminal conspiracy. Schiff has defended his actions and called the censure a “badge of honor.”

Garvey, 75, is famous in Southern California not for politics — where he calls himself a “moderate conservative” — but for playing Major League ball.

The first-time political candidate was a star first baseman for the Dodgers in the 1970s and early 1980s — winning the World Series with the team in 1981 — and later a hero with the San Diego Padres, helping them reach the World Series in 1984. He won four Gold Glove awards and was a 10-time National League All-Star.

Garvey cultivated a squeaky-clean, all-American image as a player, and has campaigned as a “role model” and “devoted family man.”

His clean image was marred by scandal in the late 1980s when Garvey divorced his wife, got two other women pregnant, then married a fourth woman, his current wife. Garvey has struggled with money for years, as well — leaving a trail of unpaid debts — and owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, according to recent financial disclosures.

Abortion

Abortion and immigration, two major issues in national politics, are also playing a role in the Schiff-Garvey race, according to polling.

In a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll in early August, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, more than half of likely California voters surveyed — 52% — said it was very important to them to elect someone who “would be a strong voice in defending abortion rights in the Senate.”

That appeared to be drawing voters to Schiff, as 84% of his voters felt that way, while just 8% of Garvey voters did.

Schiff has been a vocal advocate for women’s access to safe abortion care, calling it a right that should be guaranteed nationally. Garvey has had a mixed message on abortion, saying he is personally against it, but that California voters are for it and that he would support their “voice” in the matter.

Immigration

The Berkeley IGS poll indicated that electing a senator who “supports tougher immigration laws” was very important to 44% of the state’s likely voters. That issue appeared to be drawing voters to Garvey, as 84% of his supporters in the survey felt that way, compared with 21% of Schiff’s backers.

Schiff and Garvey have both called for comprehensive immigration reform, but Schiff has also called for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — including those brought here as children — while Garvey has focused on a more secure border and on rewarding immigrants who closely follow naturalization rules.

Former President Trump

Where Schiff and Garvey stand on the Republican, who is again running for president, has repeatedly been used — including by the two campaigns — as a litmus test for their politics.

Schiff has outwardly condemned Trump as unfit for office. His role in opposing Trump and helping to lead his impeachment has been so prominent that one fellow lawmaker and supporter — Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) — has called him “the face of the resistance.”

Garvey has said he voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, but has declined to say whether he will vote for him a third time. He has also declined to assign any responsibility to the former president for the Jan. 6 insurrection.

At a debate in January, Garvey called Schiff a “liar” for asserting there was collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. Schiff rejected that characterization, and said he was “standing up to a corrupt president.”