When Dianne Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, joined by Barbara Boxer that same year, it was a first for California. The first time a woman had represented the state in the Senate, and the first state with two women senators. It also marked the first time four women were elected to the Senate in a single year that would become known as the “Year of the Woman.”
But that run is coming to a close in California. Despite competitive female candidates in Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland and Katie Porter of Irvine, voters on Tuesday narrowed their choices for Feinstein’s seat to two men, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank and Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey of Palm Desert. The winner in November will join Sen. Alex Padilla, who replaced Kamala Harris in 2021, and for now end the era of California women in the Senate.
That’s not sitting so well with some women’s rights leaders in the Golden State.
“Super Tuesday was not so great for women,” said Emilian Guereca, founder of the Women’s March Foundation and Women’s March Action. “For the first time in 30 years, California will not have a female senator in office, which is concerning for a progressive state such as California.”
The primary results also erode an era of Northern California dominance over state politics, said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political science professor.
“For the first time in about three decades you won’t have a Bay Area Northern Californian in the U.S. Senate,” McCuan said. “That’s a big shift. Thirty years ago, the nexus of California Democratic politics was San Francisco. This is an important shift not only based on gender but generation and location.”
The Year of the Woman followed congressional hearings over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas at a time when just two women served in the Senate, one of whom, Barbara Mikulkski of Maryland, predicted the novelty of women senators would fade. She was right. In 1992, four more women were elected to the Senate and 24 were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Today, 25 of the Senate’s 100 members are women.
But Guereca said the loss of female representation in the Senate from California still matters.
“We continuously ask women to do more, to run for office, and then decide not to elect women,” Guereca said. “When women lose, society loses. We believe that when women have equal representation, society thrives.”
Political analysts said the outcome of Tuesday’s primary wasn’t necessarily a knock on women candidates. Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC-San Diego, noted the race had two strong female contenders in Lee and Porter and that three women are leading contenders for state governor in 2026.
“We didn’t think of Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein as women senators, just as political forces unto themselves,” Kousser said. “There’s been so many gains by women following their trailblazing path that Barbara Lee and Katie Porter were competing for the same votes.”
Several factors helped elevate Schiff, a former federal prosecutor and state lawmaker who’s served in Congress since 2001 and built up relationships with party leaders.
Schiff gained national exposure among Democrats prosecuting the first impeachment of former Republican President Donald Trump, the GOP’s frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination. Over the years, he’s built up an impressive fundraising network, and he faced only token opposition in his last congressional race, leaving him significant funds for a Senate run.
Two of Schiff’s most noteworthy supporters were Boxer and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, the former House speaker.
Both Lee and Porter were courting voters from the Democratic progressive far left. Lee, whose Oakland district is one of the safest for liberal Democrats, struggled to raise campaign cash. And although Porter raised nearly as much as Schiff, she started out with less after barely winning a tough reelection race in her Orange County district.
“This was a case where you had two strong female candidates, and there was another candidate who, whether it was his fundraising or his higher profile coming out of impeachment, just happened to be stronger,” Kousser said. “I don’t think it says California women can’t succeed in politics.”
California’s recent tinkering with its elections played a role as well. With Democrats enjoying a 2-1 advantage over Republicans in California party registration, the state’s “top two” primary sets up an incentive for leading Democrats to boost a Republican challenger for the runoff.
Porter accused Schiff of doing just that, running ads that described Garvey as “too conservative for California,” and giving him free exposure to Republican voters. But she spent money knocking a less-known Republican, Eric Early, as the real conservative threat to peel votes away from Garvey, and had employed a similar tactic running for Congress in 2018.
State leaders in recent years also moved the primary from June to March to align with other states. Primaries typically have lower voter turnout, and the absence of statewide voter initiatives that might have generated interest in younger voters didn’t help Porter or Lee.
McCuan said the compressed primary timeline left little room for Lee, who consistently polled in fourth place, to consider dropping out to boost Porter as the progressive alternative.
Going forward, analysts still give Garvey, a former Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres first baseman and World Series star, long odds for November in heavily Democratic California. He will have to rely on his own star power, as donors are more likely to give to races seen as more competitive, including for Porter’s District 47 House seat in Orange County.
But there are signs of trouble for Democrats, particularly given Tuesday’s low turnout.
“It is the enthusiasm problem Democrats are going to have to deal with,” McCuan said.