Election results in California: US Senate

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from Burbank, is expected to clinch victory in California's U.S. Senate against Steve Garvey, a former LA Dodgers star who is seeking to become the first Republican elected statewide in 18 years.

They are seeking a six-year term to replace Sen. Laphonza Butler, who decided not to run in her own right after being appointed following the death of Dianne Feinstein, who held the office for more than 30 years. Schiff and Garvey appear on the ballot twice this year as they are also in a separate but simultaneous race to fill the remainder of Feinstein's term, which expires in early January.

The race was virtually decided after the March 5 primary, in which Schiff's campaign spent tens of millions of dollars to promote Garvey and oust fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, who could have delivered a closer contest in heavily Democratic California.

As of Oct. 30, more than $85 million has been spent on the Schiff-Garvey contest, making it the ninth most expensive U.S. Senate race this general election, according to data from OpenSecrets, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign finance watchdog group .

The duel was all but certain for Schiff's victory – Schiff has consistently led Garvey by a significant margin in overall fundraising and the polls. In a poll released Friday by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California-Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times, the Burbank Democrat led his Republican opponent 55% to 34%.

But Schiff's strategy drew strong criticism from some progressives, who argued that the move risked increasing Republican turnout in key congressional districts in November and represented a step backwards in diverse representation: for the first time in 30 years, California would be represented by two male US senators: Schiff and Alex Padilla.

But meeting Garvey also freed Schiff to campaign for other Democrats: Instead of pouring money into his own race, Schiff was busy campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris and raising money ($7 million by early October) for other Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives are collecting races in other states. He and California's other U.S. senator, Alex Padilla, campaigned in congressional campaigns in the Central Valley over the weekend.

Garvey, who ran his campaign largely low-key, focused heavily on fundraising and skipped Republican Party events. Campaign reports show he has outperformed Schiff in the last two quarters, although overall he still had less money in the bank to spend. Garvey also took a summer trip to Israel, but mostly stayed in the state and appeared for interviews on local television stations.

The two clashed throughout the election cycle on a variety of issues, from abortion to immigration. Schiff has tried to link Garvey to former President Donald Trump and the “Make America Great Again” movement – an attempt to hurt Garvey's chances with moderate voters while touting Schiff's own record since he first impeached Trump strategists say.

But Garvey has largely stayed away from Trump, so much so that Trump himself declined to endorse Garvey, saying in September that he knew little of the baseball legend. Early in his campaign, Garvey — who voted for Trump twice — repeatedly refused to answer whether he would vote for Trump in this election before committing in July to voting for the former president over President Joe Biden vote before Biden dropped out of the race.

Garvey has turned Schiff's attack on Trump against him, arguing in their only in-person televised debate on October 8 that Schiff's focus on Trump would prevent him from tackling issues that would really affect Californians and that Schiff has done little to help him to serve components.