LOS ANGELES — The biggest names vying to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein largely agree on many issues dearest to Democratic voters, so their differing political passions, generational perspectives and life stories will likely be front and center in the first hotly contested Senate race in California in more than a decade.
Reps. Katie Porter, Adam B. Schiff and Barbara Lee all claim the progressive mantle, an almost essential ingredient for any politician hoping to put together a winning Senate campaign in a state that champions gun control, abortion rights, marriage equality and combating climate change. They face the difficult task of defining themselves in a heavily Democratic electorate that may struggle to distinguish what separates them.
"California is not going to elect a Republican. And they're not going to elect a centrist. The question is what kind of progressivism is important" to voters, said Dan Schnur, a politics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Southern California and Pepperdine University. "These three candidates represent very different strains of progressivism."
