LOS ANGELES — Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee is planning to formally launch her campaign for U.S. Senate in California by the end of February, according to a person with knowledge of the plans who said Lee is timing her announcement to coincide with Black History Month.
Lee is poised to become the first Black woman to enter a race that two of her House Democratic colleagues, Reps. Katie Porter and Adam B. Schiff, have entered. She is seen at the outset by many Democrats as an underdog contender against them. In a statement to The Washington Post, Lee emphasized the absence of a Black woman in the upper chamber since Vice President Harris gave up her seat as California’s junior senator to join the Biden administration.
“Currently, there are no Black Women in the U.S. Senate, and there have only been two in our almost 250-year history. Our voices are sorely missed in the Senate,” Lee said in the statement, referring to Harris and former senator Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.). She added: “My lived experience as a Black woman making true progressive change for Californians will give a voice in the U.S. to those who are currently voiceless.”
In January, Lee told fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus that she intended to run for the seat. The person with knowledge of her plans spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
Some Democrats believe Lee could face an uphill climb in an expensive state against Schiff, who is well-funded and has won the endorsement of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the first woman to serve as speaker of the House, and Porter, who has also shown a talent for raising cash. Recent Federal Election Commission reports show Schiff had nearly $21 million in available campaign funds, Porter had just over $7.4 million in cash on hand, and Lee had only about $52,000.
Still, with California’s unique top-two primary system, Lee’s entrance into the race could set the stage for a heated fight that could divide Democrats in the country’s most populous state along racial, geographic and generational lines. Lee is 76, Porter is 49 and Schiff is 62. The latter two representatives are White.
Lee’s allies say they believe her status as a woman of color will help her with the expected diverse electorate in the all-party primary next year, and they are signaling an intent to highlight how she has fought discrimination in her career.
“Black women have been the backbone of the Democratic Party,” said Tracy Falon King, communications director of The Collective PAC, a group focused on electing Black candidates. “We need to have a seat at the table.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the oldest sitting senator at 89, filed initial paperwork to run for reelection in 2024 but has not said whether she will seek another term, although many in the party predict she will retire. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has promised to appoint a Black woman to the Senate if Feinstein steps down before the end of her term.
Even amid the ramped-up activity, in recent interviews here with nearly 20 potential voters, few knew that the Senate primary will be held in March 2024, let alone who was running. Those who were following the race said they were undecided, but expressed a desire for new representation.
Some said that a candidate’s race and gender were factors in their decision, but not the deciding factor. Adam Moos, an entertainment industry executive in Los Angeles, noted that electing Porter or Lee would mean continuing to have female representation in the Senate, which he said was important to him.
“But do I think being a White male disqualifies Adam Schiff from being a Senator? No,” he said.
Santiago Mayer, a senior at California State University Long Beach and the founder and executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-focused political organization, said race and gender are factors for him “because we are one of the most diverse states in the country, and I think that our representation in Washington, D.C., should also be very diverse.”
Lee’s plans could affect others considering a run. In an interview last month, Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) stressed his respect for Lee and belief that there should be more Black women in the Senate. Khanna, a liberal Democrat representing Silicon Valley, said he would make his final decision on whether to mount a campaign by the end of March.
“The cause of seeing representation for an African American woman,” he said, “is something I would factor in, candidly.”
As a teenager, Lee integrated her high school cheer squad, and had an illegal abortion in Mexico before Roe v. Wade — making her one of a small group of lawmakers to have shared they underwent the medical procedure. Prior to her election to the House in 1998, Lee was the first African American woman elected to the California State Senate from Northern California.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of military force. She previously served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
None of the earliest entrants into the race are well-known statewide, according to Rose Kapolczynski, who ran all of the campaigns of now-retired Democratic senator Barbara Boxer (Calif.).
“Schiff and Porter particularly have really leveraged their positions in Congress to become better-known, with every possible MSNBC appearance and savvy use of social media,” she said. “But still, attention spans are short and in a state with tens of thousands of elected officials, developing a reputation that really sinks in and leaves a lasting impression is tough.”
In California, the two candidates who receive the most votes — regardless of party — in the primary advance to the general election. The state is one of the most liberal-leaning in the country, putting the focus heavily on the Democrats in the race.
Schiff is running a campaign centered around preserving democracy and highlighting his role as the lead impeachment manager during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment and his spot on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In an interview with The Post the week of her campaign launch, Porter — who has become known on Capitol Hill for viral clips of her whiteboard-aided questioning at committee hearings following her 2018 election — framed her pitch around her background as a consumer advocate and working-class single mom “willing to stand up to people in power,” including fellow Democrats.
Both represent districts in Southern California, while Lee represents a district in the San Francisco Bay Area. The latter is a crucial in statewide races, Democrats said.
“The Bay Area turns out more heavily in primaries, and so even though more of the population is in Southern California, you do need to become known in the Bay Area in order to get your place in the top two,” Kapolczynski said.
The state’s large Latino population will make outreach to Hispanic communities another important part of the race, strategists said. Christian Arana, the vice president of policy at the Latino Community Foundation, said he has yet to see Schiff or Porter make any overtures to reach Latino voters since launching their campaigns, and he called Porter’s first campaign stop — at the Rossmoor Democratic club, in a senior adult community — “very telling about what’s going to be the priority.”
Schiff will address the club later this month, which is the largest Democratic Party club in Northern California.
Porter’s campaign said she has been reaching out to Latino communities throughout the state, including campaign stops in majority-Latino communities in Southeast Los Angeles on Friday as part of an event focused on the environment. A representative for Schiff did not have any immediate comment about efforts to reach Latino voters in the two weeks since he launched his campaign. On Thursday he was endorsed by the state IATSE council, which represents more than 50,000 film and TV workers.
For now, many say they are open to different possibilities, putting pressure on the candidates to distinguish themselves in coming months.
Julie Battenfield, an independent who lives in Citrus Heights in the northern part of the state, and was a Republican until Trump, said she wants “some fresh young blood” in the seat. She said she was familiar with Lee and Schiff, but not Porter.
“If it’s Barbara Lee or Katie Porter, great. But I also think that, you know, if it ends up being Adam Schiff, I’m not crying over that either,” Moos said.
Amy B Wang in Washington contributed to this report.