Steve Garvey (California)

Steve Garvey (Republican Party) is running in a special election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. He is on the ballot in the special primary on March 5, 2024.

Garvey is also running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. He is on the ballot in the primary on March 5, 2024.

Biography

Garvey was a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987. He founded Garvey Marketing Group and worked with causes such as the Special Olympics, Juvenile Diabetes, The Blind Children Center, The Sisters of Carondelet, United Way, Ronald McDonald House, St. Vincent DePaul Center, and Pediatrics AIDS.^[1]

2024 battleground election

See also: United States Senate election in California, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)

Ballotpedia identified the March 5, 2024, top-two primary as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.

Twenty-nine candidates are running in the top-two primary for U.S. Senate in California on March 5, 2024. The primary will determine which two candidates will run in the state's general election on November 5, 2024.

Incumbent Laphonza Butler (D) announced she would not run for re-election on October 19, 2023.^[2] Governor Gavin Newsom (D) appointed Butler to replace Dianne Feinstein (D), who died on September 29, 2023.^[3] Butler was sworn in on October 3 of that year.^[4] This will be the first open race for California's Class I U.S. Senate seat since 1992.^[5]

The following candidates have received the most media attention: Barbara Lee (D), Katie Porter (D), Adam Schiff (D), and Steve Garvey (R).^[5]^[6] Lee, Porter, and Schiff are members of California's congressional delegation. Garvey is a former professional baseball player. The Democratic candidates are campaigning on democracy reform, climate change, the economy, and healthcare.^[7]^[8]^[9] Garvey's priorities are quality-of-life issues, public safety, and education.^[10] To learn more about the additional 25 candidates running in the primary, click here.

The top-two primary is for the six-year term beginning on January 3, 2025. Also on the primary ballot is a special top-two primary for the remainder of Feinstein's term, which will last until January 3, 2025. As of December 3, 2023, Lee, Porter, Schiff, and Garvey are running in both the special and regular primary elections.^[6] Paul Mitchell, a Democratic strategist and pollster, said, "In a crowded field of contenders, each with their own appeal, being on both ballots could potentially pose some risk. Even a small splitting of votes because of this ballot oddity could cause a candidate to make the runoff in the special election for the remainder term, and not make the runoff in the election for the full term."^[6]

The San Francisco Chronicle's Shira Stein and Joe Garofoli said the three Democratic candidates voted the same way 94% of the time over the past four and a half years in Congress. They differed most often on foreign policy, the military, and immigration. For example, "they had a rare moment of disunion over the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas. Schiff expressed unequivocal support for Israel while Lee called for a cease-fire and offered prayers for both Israelis and Palestinians killed. Porter stood out by taking an unusual position for a Democrat — attributing some of the blame to American inaction in Iran."^[11] On December 18, 2023, Porter updated her stance, saying, "I support working toward a lasting bilateral ceasefire in Gaza. ... The role of the United States should be to identify and push for conditions where a lasting bilateral ceasefire is possible. These conditions include release of all hostages, durable security for Israel, and an end to Hamas’ control of Gaza."^[12]

This is the second time in two years that four races will be held (two primaries and two generals) in California in one year for the same U.S. Senate seat. In 2022, Sen. Alex Padilla (D), who was appointed to fill Kamala Harris' (D) Senate seat, ran for the remainder of Harris' term, as well as for the new, six-year term.^[6]

Elections

2024

Regular election

General election

The primary will occur on March 5, 2024. The general election will occur on November 5, 2024. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

The following candidates are running in the primary for U.S. Senate California on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate
		Sharleta Bassett (R)
		James P. Bradley (R)
		Eric Early (R)
		Steve Garvey (R)
		Denice Gary-Pandol (R)
		Laura Garza (No party preference)
		Sepi Gilani (D)
		Don Grundmann (No party preference)
		Forrest Jones (American Independent Party of California)
		Harmesh Kumar (D)
		Barbara Lee (D)
		Sarah Sun Liew (R)
		Gail Lightfoot (L)
		James Macauley (R)
		Christina Pascucci (D)
		David Peterson (D)
		Douglas Howard Pierce (D)
		Katie Porter (D)
		Perry Pound (D)
		Raji Rab (D)
		Jonathan Reiss (R)
		John Rose (D)
		Mark Ruzon (No party preference)
		Adam Schiff (D)
		Stefan Simchowitz (R)
		Major Singh (No party preference)
		Martin Veprauskas (R)
		Eduardo Berdugo (Independent) (Write-in)
		Danny Fabricant (R) (Write-in)

	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Paul Anderson (G)
Carson Franklin Jr. (D)
Barack Obama Mandela (R)
Zafar Inam (D)
Renee Martinez (Independent)
Lexi Reese (D)
Peter Yuan Liu (R)
Joe Sosinski (Independent)
Roxanne Lawler (R)
James Shuster (R)
Frank Ferreira (Independent)
Rommell Montenegro (D)
Jeremy Fennell (D)
Zakaria Kortam (R)
John Pappenheim (R)
Jacob Farmos (D)
Joshua Bocanegra (D)
Alexander Norbash (D)
Dominick Dorothy (D)
Jehu Hand (R)
Dana Bobbitt (Independent)
Fepbrina Keivaulqe Autiameineire (Vienmerisce Veittemeignzce USA)
Jessica Resendez (D)

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.^[13] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."^[14] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, when available. Click here to read about FiveThirtyEight's criteria for including polls in its aggregation. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval.

2024: Primary election polls
Poll	Date	Schiff	Porter	Garvey	Lee	Bradley	Early	Pascucci	Reese	Reiss	Liew	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size^[15]	Sponsor^[16]
Emerson College	Nov. 11-14	16%	13%	10%	9%	3%	2%	2%	2%	1%	1%	41%^[17]	± 3.0	1,000 RV	Nexstar Media
PPIC Statewide Survey	Nov. 9-16	21%	16%	10%	8%	4%	3%	1%	0%	2%	2%	17%^[18]	± 3.8	1,113 LV	N/A
LA Times/Berkeley IGS	Oct. 24-30	16%	17%	10%	9%	7%	4%	1%	1%	N/A	N/A	35%^[19]	± 2.5	4,506 LV	Los Angeles Times
PPIC Statewide Survey	Oct. 3-19	21%	18%	N/A	9%	5%	6%	N/A	1%	2%	2%	20%^[20]	± 4.0	1,395 LV	N/A
PPIC Statewide Survey	Aug. 25-Sept. 5	20%	15%	N/A	8%	5%	5%	N/A	1%	3%	2%	19%^[21]	± 3.7	1,146 LV	N/A

Click [show] to see older poll results
Poll	Date	Schiff	Porter	Garvey	Lee	Bradley	Early	Pascucci	Reese	Reiss	Liew	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size^[22]	Sponsor^[23]
LA Times/Berkeley IGS	Aug. 24-29	20%	17%	7%	7%	7%	5%	N/A	1%	N/A	N/A	36%	± 2.5	3,113 LV	Los Angeles Times
PPIC Statewide Survey	June 7-29	16%	19%	N/A	13%	6%	7%	N/A	N/A	4%	5%	9%^[24]	± 3.8	1,092 LV	N/A
Emerson College	June 4-7	15%	14%	N/A	6%	4%	3%	N/A	N/A	1%	N/A	48%^[25]	± 2.9	1,056 RV	Nexstar Media
LA Times/Berkeley IGS	May 17-22	14%	17%	N/A	9%	N/A	18%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	42%	± 3.0	5,236 LV	Los Angeles Times

Election campaign finance

This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.^[26] It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees.^[27]

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Sepi Gilani	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Harmesh Kumar	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Barbara Lee	Democratic Party	$3,390,205	$2,066,329	$1,323,876	As of September 30, 2023
Christina Pascucci	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
David Peterson	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Douglas Howard Pierce	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Katie Porter	Democratic Party	$22,130,231	$10,169,774	$11,960,457	As of September 30, 2023
Perry Pound	Democratic Party	$3,800	$150	$3,650	As of September 30, 2023
Raji Rab	Democratic Party	$10,900	$7,516	$3,384	As of September 30, 2023
John Rose	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Adam Schiff	Democratic Party	$21,520,628	$10,453,622	$32,127,524	As of September 30, 2023
Sharleta Bassett	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
James P. Bradley	Republican Party	$16,411	$16,151	$345	As of September 30, 2023
Eric Early	Republican Party	$547,023	$460,177	$86,846	As of September 30, 2023
Danny Fabricant	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Steve Garvey	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Denice Gary-Pandol	Republican Party	$89,892	$84,437	$5,455	As of September 30, 2023
Sarah Sun Liew	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
James Macauley	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Jonathan Reiss	Republican Party	$6,132	$4,901	$2,691	As of September 30, 2023
Stefan Simchowitz	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Martin Veprauskas	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Forrest Jones	American Independent Party of California	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Gail Lightfoot	Libertarian Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Laura Garza	No party preference	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Don Grundmann	No party preference	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Mark Ruzon	No party preference	$5,535	$1	$5,534	As of September 30, 2023
Major Singh	No party preference	$200	$108	$1,348	As of September 30, 2023
Eduardo Berdugo	Independent	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. * Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.^[28]^[29]

If available, satellite spending reports by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and OpenSecrets.org are linked below. FEC links include totals from monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual reports. OpenSecrets.org compiles data from those reports as well as 24- and 48-hour reports from the FEC.^[30]

Details about satellite spending of significant amounts and/or reported by media are included below those links. The amounts listed may not represent the total satellite spending in the election. To notify us of additional satellite spending, email us.

By candidate	By election
Barbara Lee Katie Porter Adam Schiff Steve Garvey Paul Anderson Dana Bobbitt James P. Bradley Eric Early Danny Fabricant Jacob Farmos Jeremy Fennell Frank Ferreira Carson Franklin Jr. Denice Gary-Pandol Sepi Gilani Jehu Hand Zafar Inam Fepbrina Keivaulqe Autiameineire Zakaria Kortam Roxanne Lawler Barack Obama Mandela Renee Martinez Rommell Montenegro Alexander Norbash John Pappenheim Christina Pascucci Douglas Howard Pierce Perry Pound Raji Rab Jonathan Reiss Jessica Resendez John Rose Mark Ruzon James Shuster Stefan Simchowitz Major Singh Joe Sosinski Eduardo Berdugo	Open Secrets Federal Election Commission

Endorsements

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Special election