Former California representative Katie Porter, a leading Democratic candidate for governor, threatened to walk out of an interview with a local news outlet after the reporter pressed her on whether support for a redistricting measure would alienate Republicans who voted for Donald Trump.
The on-camera exchange between Porter and CBS News reporter Julie Watts has gained widespread attention, drawing a sharp rebuke from her rivals and potentially shaking up the stagnant race to replace the term-limited Gavin Newsom.
The interview grew testy when Watts asked: “What do you say to the 40% of California voters – who you’ll need in order to win – who voted for Trump?”
Porter, a Democrat and an early frontrunner in the gubernatorial race, appeared baffled by the question’s premise that a Democratic candidate would need to win Republican voters in the country’s largest blue state.
Porter furrowed her brow and leaned toward Watts: “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” She then turned to someone off-camera and laughed.
Watts followed up, asking whether Porter expected to win “everybody who did not vote for Trump”, to which the candidate replied: “In a general election? Yes. If it is me versus a Republican, I think I will win the people who did not vote for Trump.”
Watts then asked what would happen if she faced another Democrat in the general election, a scenario that could split the party’s base. Porter shot back: “I don’t intend that to be the case.”
California uses a “jungle primary” system, in which all candidates – regardless of party – appear on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. Because California leans heavily Democratic, party strategists often prefer a Republican opponent in the general election, believing it gives their candidate a better chance of winning than if two Democrats split the vote.
The interview comes as Porter is seeking to consolidate support among the vast field of Democrats after Kamala Harris announced she would not run for governor. The lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, dropped out of the race in August.
In the three-minute exchange, Porter offered a strategic assessment of the race – a Democrat running against a Republican in California did not need to make much effort with Republican voters – but it was an unusual tack for a candidate seeking an executive office. During the back-and-forth, Porter engaged with the broader question, arguing that she had a record of persuading conservative voters to help her win her Orange county congressional seat.
As Watts posed more follow-up questions, Porter grew increasingly frustrated, at one point holding up her hands and saying the interview had become “unnecessarily argumentative”.
“I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m going to call it,” Porter said, appearing to reach for her mic. However, according to CBS, she ultimately stayed and finished the interview. It aired as part of a 30-minute segment in which the gubernatorial candidates answered a series of similar questions about California’s redistricting plan, which is on the ballot this November.
After CBS published the interview, several of Porter’s rivals criticized her response.
“I’m not interested in excluding any vote,” Xavier Becerra, the former health and human services secretary, wrote on X, sharing a clip of his interview with the same reporter asking him the same question. “Every Californian deserves affordable health care, safe streets, a roof over their head and a living wage.”
“We need a leader who will solve hard problems and answer simple questions,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor and a Democrat running for governor. He also shared his interview with Watts.
The California state superintendent, Tony Thurmond, a Democrat, said this was “a pattern for Porter” and asked Watts to moderate a debate among the Democratic candidates in the race.
“If she can’t answer basic questions from a reporter, how can Californians expect her to stand up to President Trump?” he wrote on X.
“Katie Porter doesn’t have the temperament to be governor,” the former state controller Betty Yee, a Democrat, said.
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Chad Bianco, Riverside county sheriff and the leading Republican candidate in the race, accused Porter of throwing “a tantrum on TV because you do not like the question”.
“Katie Porter is just another unhinged Democrat who would complete Gavin Newsom’s destruction of our beautiful state,” he wrote.
A survey from the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, released in late August, after Kamala Harris had announced that she would not run for governor, found Porter holding a marginal lead with 17% of the vote. Bianco came in second, with 10%, followed by Becerra with 9%.
But the race was far from settled, with 38% of California voters still undecided at this stage.
