California Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter, a consumer advocate, says housing is a top priority
Rep. Katie Porter's mistrust of those in power is rooted in what she witnessed, growing up in Iowa in the 1980s.
Rep. Katie Porter's mistrust of those in power is rooted in what she witnessed, growing up in Iowa in the 1980s.
Rep. Katie Porter's mistrust of those in power is rooted in what she witnessed, growing up in Iowa in the 1980s.
The race for California's open U.S. Senate seat has become a fierce battle between three Democrats, some of California's best-known members of Congress. Known as a consumer advocate, Congresswoman Katie Porter is used to fierce battles. In congressional hearings, she has taken on powerful corporate and government leaders using a simple whiteboard to illustrate her arguments.
Porter's mistrust of those in power is rooted in what she witnessed growing up in Iowa in the 1980s. She watched families lose their farms as land values plummeted. At the same time, as Iowa hosted the first-in-the-nation caucuses in presidential politics, she saw candidates campaign throughout the state, making promises they didn't see to keep.
"So many people lost farms that had been in their family for generations, and there was also a sense of a loss of a future. What would we do here? There was no economy in a rural area like that, ready to replace it. So we saw people, including my mom, driving 120 miles a day round trip into the nearest city to be able to work. I think a lot of us felt like, 'what will happen to our town?'" explained Porter.
Years later, in Harvard Law School, she heard the same questions as she worked as a research assistant for future Sen. Elizabeth Warren. While Warren's research focused on why families end up in bankruptcy, much of Porter's work was about what happens afterward. She found it's often 20 or 30 years of continued financial struggle.
When she became a congresswoman in 2019, she says she thought about those families as she got to work. "One of my big goals was to make sure that we wrote rules that were fair to consumers," Porter said. "So often those rules are all written to favor big companies."
She says that's why she's fought to keep corporate money out of politics, including her own campaigns. She says the math is pretty simple.
"These are some of the most profitable corporations in the world," Porter said. "They wouldn't make corporate PAC donations if they weren't getting a return on their investment in terms of people taking those votes. So it was really important to me right from the beginning to have consumers and workers know that I'm fighting for them."
She is also addressing the political ads that accuse her of taking "donations from executives from Big Pharma, Big Oil and Big Banks." The ads are paid for by a PAC backed mostly by members of the cryptocurrency industry, and independent reviews have called the ads false. Specifically, they note the companies named in the ad don't technically fall under the "big" business categories.
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"The simple truth is I've never taken corporate money, and these special interests know it," said Porter. "I think this is exactly what's wrong with our politics."
Porter says in a divided Congress, trying to pass consumer protections is only part of her work. She believes oversight and enforcement can be even more powerful, like the time she grilled the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield. During the pandemic, she convinced him to make COVID-19 testing free for everyone.
"The law was already on the books to do that. We hear people always talk about what bill they're going to pass, and that matters," she explained. "But we also don't use a lot of the rules and laws that we have. There was already an existing law saying in a public health emergency you can make testing free."
Before running for Congress, Porter taught at UC Irvine's Law School. She's currently on an extended leave from that job. Porter is the only major candidate in this race who's raising school-aged children. Her daughter is 12, and her sons are 15 and 18 years old. She knows it's rare for a single mom to talk about those challenges on the campaign trail.
"The uncertainty of the schedule is actually probably more like most Americans than what we traditionally have seen in politics," Porter said. "Particularly, women elected officials running only after their kids are in college, or after their kids have married and moved out. When I talk about childcare and what this country needs to do, I get it because I've been that person who's had that sick kid while I was at work trying to figure out how to manage."
Porter currently has her sights set on the housing crisis. As a senator, she would push lawmakers to "backstop" private capital, giving developers an incentive to build more affordable housing. Like with much of her work, Porter says in this race, she's driven by her hopes for her children's generation.
"My own son told me that he doesn't think he's going to live in California when he grows up. He's 15. And I asked him why, and he said, 'Well, Mom, I just think in California, you can never afford to buy a house.' These are real conversations, and they're about California's future, which is what the Senate race should be about," she said. "It's what Congress should be working on -- a better future."
As for the other leading candidates, here is where you can find our interviews with them: