(HorizonPost.com) – California Democrat Rep. Katie Porter, one of several candidates who competed in the state’s Senate primary on Super Tuesday, is doubling down on her claim that the primary was rigged after she came in a distant third place to Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey, The Hill reported.
Following her third-place finish, Porter, who resigned her House seat to run for the California Senate seat once held by the late Dianne Feinstein, posted a thread on X, thanking her supporters and claiming that she withstood an “onslaught” of campaign spending by billionaires “to rig this election.”
After receiving criticism for her claim that the primary was rigged, Porter doubled down while denying that she was claiming election fraud.
In a statement on Thursday, Porter explained that by using the word “rigged,” she meant “manipulated by dishonest means.”
She added that “a few billionaires” spent over $10 million to run attack ads against her, including one with claims that a fact-checker later deemed false. Porter suggested that the false ad was an example of using “dishonest means to manipulate an outcome.”
Porter explained that dark money billionaires do manipulate our politics, and by “calling that out,” she was “defending democracy.” She insisted that she was not in any way attempting to undermine the election process or vote counting in California, which she described as “beyond reproach.”
In California’s nonpartisan primary, all candidates from both parties compete on the same ballot with the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advancing to the November election.
According to NBC News, by Friday, with 57 percent of the votes counted, Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey were in first and second place, each with about a third of the vote. Katie Porter was nearly 20 points behind in a distant third place, followed by California Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee, who remained in single digits.
Schiff and Garvey will face off in November to replace temporary Senator Laphonza Butler who was appointed by Governor Newsom last year to serve out the remainder of the late-Senator Feinstein’s term.
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