Whiteboard-Wielding Katie Porter Defeats Republican Challenger

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) fended off her Republican challenger in California’s 47th congressional district.

Multiple news outlets made the call Wednesday night.

Porter, who is known for her aggressive questioning of congressional witnesses – often with a whiteboard in hand –  downed Republican Scott Baugh in the race to represent California’s newly redrawn 47th congressional district. The congresswoman currently represents the 45th, which has also been redrawn after the 2020 Census.

With 93% of the vote tally counted, Porter leads Baugh by nearly 7,000 votes in the southern California district that includes Central Orange County. The district is almost evenly divided between registered Democrats (35.6%) and Republicans (34%). About 24.5% of voters in the district have no party preference.

Porter has served in Congress since 2019 and was considered a vulnerable Democrat in the redrawn district. Many did not give her a chance, as a massive red wave was expected to flip House and Senate seats across the country.

But the red wave never materialized. Republicans retook the House, but just barely. Five races have yet to be decided, which means Republicans could very well be looking at a single-digit majority. Over in the Senate, the GOP failed to retake that chamber.

Porter has made a name for herself in Congress with her adversarial attitude toward certain witnesses who’ve had the misfortune of testifying before committees she serves on.

In one memorable exchange with Robert Redfield, who at the time was the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Porter grilled him to the point where he promised to make coronavirus tests free for all Americans.

She pointed to a federal regulation that would permit him to “authorize payment for the care and treatment of individuals subject to medical exam quarantine, isolation, and conditional release.”

Porter asked Redfield if he would invoke that authority. The director gave a noncommittal answer that she deemed “not good enough.”

Eventually, she got Redfield to say, “Yes.”

“Excellent,” Porter responded. “Everybody in America hear that? You are eligible to get tested for coronavirus and have that covered regardless of insurance.”

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