Copyright independent
Support for California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter has tanked after she nearly stormed out of a recent interview and old footage surfaced of her berating a staffer, according to new polling. In a UC Berkeley survey released Friday, 11 percent of Golden State voters said they back Porter, a former Democratic congresswoman, down from 17 percent in August. She’s now been overtaken by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, who garnered 13 percent support, up three points from this summer. The shift may reignite hope among Republicans keen on retaking the governor’s mansion for the first time in decades. “Californians are craving real leadership after eight years of [Governor Gavin] Newsom’s posturing and primping while so many are suffering,” Bianco told The Independent when asked about the survey. “A new way forward begins in November 2026 when I am elected Governor.” The poll comes on the heels of a turbulent few weeks for Porter, one of nearly a dozen candidates running to replace term-limited Gavin Newsom in 2026. In October, a sit-down interview she conducted with CBS News went viral after she became flustered by the reporter’s questions. “What do you say to the 40 percent of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for [President Donald] Trump?” journalist Julie Watts asked Porter. “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” Porter, who made a name for herself by grilling corporate executives during congressional hearings, responded. When pressed on this question, she complained Watts was “unnecessarily argumentative” and came close to tearing her mic off while threatening to end the interview. The next day, Politico obtained footage from 2021 of the then-congresswoman yelling at an aide during an online discussion with then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “Get out of my f***ing shot!” Porter can be heard shouting when the unnamed aid briefly appears on camera to offer a correction to a statement Porter made about electric vehicles. In response, Porter told The Independent at the time, “It’s no secret I hold myself and my staff to a high standard, and that was especially true as a member of Congress,” adding, “I have sought to be more intentional in showing gratitude to my staff for their important work.” The two incidents have sparked fierce criticism from Porter’s rivals. Bianco told FOX News that Porter’s CBS News interview revealed her “entitlement” and “narcissism.” And Betty Yee, a former California State controller, said Porter lacks the right temperament for high office. But, it’s still early in the race and many voters still have not made up their minds about the crowded field of candidates — which is expected to grow. In the UC Berkeley survey, nearly half of respondents, 44 percent, said they remain undecided ahead of the June primaries and November general election. And despite recent challenges, Porter remains the frontrunner among Democrats — a vital advantage in a state that has not elected a GOP governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. A 19 percent plurality of Democrats said they support her. Xavier Becerra, who served as former President Joe Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, came in second, garnering 13 percent support. Porter is “the leading Democrat among the various ones that are in there right now,” Mark DiCamillo, director of the survey, told The Los Angeles Times. “But it’s because nobody really on the Democratic side has really jumped out of the pack. It’s kind of a political vacuum at the moment.” He added that the relative lack of interest in the race also could be down to the special election on redistricting, which passed on Tuesday, as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris’s belated decision to not run for the governor’s mansion. Now that the special election is over, candidates can “rev up the public to pay attention,” DiCamillo said. The survey was conducted October 20-27 with 8,141 registered voters in California and it has a margin of error of about 2 percentage points. The Independent has reached out to Porter’s campaign for comment.
