Porter was among the crowded field of candidates vying for the Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein which was won by Rep. Adam Schiff (D) and Republican candidate Steve Garvey.
After her initial comment, Porter put out a statement doubling down that the election was “rigged,” but later tried to clarify she was contesting the vote count:
“Rigged” means manipulated by dishonest means. A few billionaires spent $10 million+ on attack ads against me, including an ad rated “false” by an independent fact checker. That is dishonest means to manipulate an outcome. I said “rigged by billionaires” and our politics are — in fact — manipulated by big dark money. Defending democracy means calling that out. At no time have I ever undermined the vote count and election process in CA, which are beyond reproach.
It wasn’t long before Republicans and Democrats alike began criticizing Porter’s comments as reckless and irresponsible.
David Becker, the founder of the left-leaning Center for Election Innovation & Research, explained in his own tweet:
Claims that elections were “rigged” damage our democracy, regardless of party. Every candidate knew the campaign finance and election rules well before the election, as in 2020 and 2022. And all those elections were run fairly, accurately, and securely, according to those rules.
Rick Hasen, an election law writer, director of Safeguarding Democracy Project, and a former colleague of Porter wrote:
I’m a former colleague of Katie’s at UC Irvine, and I know what she is trying to say. And I’m a big opponent of Citizens United and undisclosed spending in campaigns. (I wrote a whole book about it.)
But calling an election “rigged” in these times is irresponsible. These comments will be taken out of context to claim that Katie is as bad as Trump in saying that the election system is unfair. This will cause more people to doubt the integrity of the election process.
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