Garvey opens up slight lead over Schiff in California Senate race
Republican Steve Garvey has jumped into a virtual tie with Rep. Adam Schiff in the battle for a U.S. Senate seat, a new Berkeley-Institute of Governmental Studies poll showed Friday.
That’s potentially terrific news for Schiff. The top two finishers in Tuesday’s primary meet in November, and the poll shows Schiff would easily defeat Garvey.
Garvey, a former baseball player who has never run for public office, was the choice of 27% of likely voters in Tuesday’s primary for a full Senate term.
Schiff, D-Burbank, the leader in most other polls, had 25%. That puts the two candidates in a statistical tie, with the Berkeley poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points
The survey, conducted Feb. 22 to 27, show that Garvey and Schiff appear to be distancing themselves from the rest of the field.
Trailing were Reps. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, at 19%, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, at 8%. Two Republicans, Eric Early and James Bradley, each had 2%.
Schiff and Garvey were also in the first two spots in a new The Hill/Emerson College poll taken at about the same time. Schiff had 28% to Garvey’s 20%. Porter had 17% and Lee, 8%.
Schiff and his supporters has been trying to boost Garvey, and have run ads about Garvey’s conservative leanings and sympathy for former President Donald Trump, with the aim of moving Garvey into the top two and making him Schiff’s opponent in November.
The strategy is apparently working. The Berkeley poll shows Schiff beating Garvey in a fall matchup, 53% to 38%. But Schiff and Porter are tied at 30%, with 40% undecided.
This story was originally published March 1, 2024 at 8:53 AM.
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