Katie Porter’s Viral Videos Plunge Campaign Into ‘disaster’

Katie Porter’s “unhappy experience” in a viral interview has become the news cycle from hell.

The bipartisan pile-on following the widely-circulated clip of her contentious sit-down with a local CBS news affiliate was only hours old when a new video surfaced from POLITICO of the former House member berating a staffer in 2021 — the two clips fueling long-simmering concerns about her temperament and judgment.

Together, they suddenly boiled over into the broader political zeitgeist, raising questions about just how durable Porter’s lead in California’s gubernatorial race really is.

“Is this a disaster? Yes,” said Gale Kaufman, a veteran Democratic strategist based in Sacramento. “And the reason it’s a disaster is because it amplifies what her reputation already is.”

Porter’s Democratic rivals, smelling blood in the water, quickly seized on the former congresswoman’s wince-worthy television appearance. Antonio Villaraigosa took the unusual step of purchasing three-minute ads in the Sacramento market to run the entirety of Porter’s tense exchange with CBS reporter Julie Watts. Stephen J. Cloobeck released a digital ad knocking Porter for past inflammatory comments. Xavier Becerra and Tony Thurmond highlighted their own, less-incendiary, responses to Watts’ questions. And Betty Yee called on Porter to drop out.

“As the last viable female candidate in this race, it matters to me that California’s first female governor be a trusted, respected leader we can all be proud of — not a viral embarrassment,” Yee said in a statement. “Women in politics are still held to higher standards, and Katie Porter has clearly failed that test.”

On Wednesday, the Porter campaign dismissed the effect of the episodes on her frontrunner status.

"Californians are hungry for a governor who they trust can fight for them against Trump,” Peter Opitz, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. “They know from her work taking on powerful interests in Washington that Katie is never going to be shy about calling out bullshit, and that is why every poll shows Katie firmly in the lead."

The one-two punch of unflattering Porter videos resurfaced what has been seen as a weakness and jolted a race to succeed Gavin Newsom that started sluggishly, devoid of big names and overshadowed by next month’s redistricting ballot measure showdown, a nationalized election Democrats have framed as a chance to take on President Donald Trump.

The pair of viral videos marked the first major speedbumps in the Democrat’s bid for governor. The attention radiated far outside the insular world of California’s political class and into the broader bloodstream. Many of the sharpest critiques came from the right: Conservative influencers were turbo-charging the CBS news clip on social media, and Fox News dedicated multiple segments to it throughout Wednesday.

"It hurts her significantly. This will be what a lot of voters hear about her or see about her for the first time,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP consultant who served as a senior aide to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “It's not just that she appears intemperate and incapable of answering fair questions or subjecting herself to the interview. I just don't think she comes across as very likable."

But there was also a chorus of detractors from her own party, including palpable schadenfreude from operatives who had worked on rival campaigns or heard Porter was difficult to work with — or for.

“What people saw in that interview is a certain temperament,” said Marisol Samayoa, a consultant who worked for Adam Schiff’s Senate bid. “The way she handled herself on camera is an example of the type of leadership Californians don’t want to see.”

Porter, whose name identification far exceeds her rivals thanks to her national profile as a whiteboard-wielding anti-corporate warrior and her failed statewide bid for Senate last year, has consistently led in polls since Kamala Harris opted out of running for governor. She has scooped up some major endorsements, including EMILY’s List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights, and statewide unions such as the National Union of Healthcare Workers and the Teamsters.

“This is a big field. I’m proud to be at the front of it and I’m going to work hard to keep it that way,” Porter said at POLITICO’s California Agenda summit in Sacramento in August.

But experienced campaign hands say Porter’s lead is tenuous.

“The race is not set. We're not sure who all the candidates are,” said Kaufman, who is not working for any of the candidates. “She can continue to call herself the frontrunner all she wants, but there remains more undecided [voters] than anything else.”

This week’s bad headlines resonate so widely in part because they reinforced the criticisms that have shadowed Porter since she entered public life: that she can be undisciplined, thin-skinned in the face of criticism, and so abrasive or demanding that it damages vital relationships.

Wariness about those traits has fueled a campaign to draft Sen. Alex Padilla as an alternative to Porter. For some Sacramento insiders, the interview blowup offered more reason to doubt her fitness and conjured memories of past missteps.

Porter has long been dogged by allegations of mistreating staffers and endured an acrimonious breakup. While her aggressive questioning of corporate executives during congressional hearings earned her national plaudits, that hard-charging style made it harder for her to win friends in Washington.

Notably, nearly every California House Democrat endorsed then-Reps. Schiff or Barbara Lee over Porter in last year’s Senate showdown. Porter later angered many Democrats and drew a rebuke from Padilla when she responded to her loss by accusing Schiff of seeking to “rig” the results.

The lingering skepticism about Porter among California’s political elite is evident in her campaign finances. Since July 1, she has trailed Becerra in collecting checks totaling $5,000 or more — the kind of large-dollar donations that are the bread and butter of statewide races in California. Becerra has raised $465,000 while Porter brought in just over $400,000. (Porter’s campaign noted that a similar dynamic played out earlier in the year, and that she vastly outraised Becerra in small-dollar donations in that time period.)

Still, Porter’s no-B.S. persona has won her a dedicated following from Democrats across the country, and it’s unclear if any of her declared rivals have the star power to capitalize on her very bad week.

At least now they have a chance to try, said Andrew Acosta, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist who is not working for any of the candidates.

The other candidates “are all in molasses right now because of Prop 50. Nobody can really move,” he said, “and now this interview came out, and it gives some folks an opportunity to say, ‘Look, she's not ready for prime time.’”