Former baseball MVP Steve Garvey joined the race Tuesday to succeed the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, giving Republicans a splash of star quality on the ballot in a heavily Democratic state where the GOP hasn't won a Senate race in 35 years, reports the AP. Garvey, 74, launched his campaign with a video lush with baseball imagery that recalled his career as a perennial All-Star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. It also signaled he would lean toward the political center in a party dominated by former President Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate who could share the ballot with Garvey next year.
"I never played for Democrats or Republicans or independents. I played for all of you," Garvey said in the video, in which he also alluded to problems vexing the state from homelessness to crime. "It's going to be a common sense campaign." In an interview, Garvey said he voted for Trump in the past but had not settled on a pick in the unfolding 2024 presidential contest. He did not answer directly when asked if he considered himself part of the Trump wing of the GOP. Trump lost California in landslides in 2016 and 2020, though he had support from millions of Republican and conservative-leaning voters in the state. "I'm running the Steve Garvey campaign," he said. "We need to bring people together again."
Garvey's entrance into a race gives Republicans a recognized name to many Californians, even though he may be unknown to millions of younger voters. He played his last major league game in 1987 after an 18-year major league career, and he was National League MVP in 1974. Still, he will face the challenges of any first-time candidate: raising millions of dollars for TV advertising and building an organization to turn out voters in a field of candidates that already includes Democratic US Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff, and Barbara Lee. The race could be further complicated if Sen. Laphonza Butler, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom recently appointed to the seat following Feinstein's death, chooses to run.
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Garvey struck a series of familiar Republican positions, including calling for temporarily closing the border with Mexico, at a time when polls indicate widespread frustration with President Biden's handling of immigration. He was critical of the state's push to ban the sale of most new gas-powered cars by 2035, saying "that's not realistic." On abortion, an issue Democrats hope will galvanize the party's base after the Supreme Court last year overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, Garvey said he does not support a nationwide abortion ban. He said his campaign would be anchored to reducing crime, improving education, and working to lasso inflation and trim soaring gas prices. (More California stories.)
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