Democrat Katie Porter, Elizabeth Warren Protégée, In Trouble in Orange County

Incumbent Democrat Rep. Katie Porter is in trouble in her Orange County, California, district as the Cook Political Report has moved her race against Republican challenger Scott Baugh to a “toss-up” in its latest ratings.

Porter, 48, won her district in the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats took nearly all of the seven congressional seats that Republicans held in districts that had voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Four seats in Orange County, traditionally a Republican area, flipped blue.

Two of those seats flipped back to Republicans in 2020. And now, another member of the Class of 2018 is in trouble:

NEW @CookPolitical House rating changes: 10 more blue state districts move in Republicans' direction, including #CA47 Rep. Katie Porter (D) from Lean D to Toss Up. Full analysis: https://t.co/ldqos2Pi8J pic.twitter.com/rD40MW6vdw

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 1, 2022

Porter is an academic and a protégée of left-wing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). She faces Baugh, a former California State Assemblyman who also led the Republican caucus in the Assembly in the late 1990s.
In 2018, Porter’s win, along with those of other Democrats, was seen as a sign that Orange County had shifted permanently to the left, thanks to demographic and cultural changes. But that conclusion may have been premature, especially as Latino voters — a large bloc in the county — are moving toward the Republican Party.

Although Porter’s struggles could partly be a result of the redrawing of congressional districts, the fact that her race is now considered a close one is a sign of a coming “red wave” that could sweep Republicans back into power in one, or both, houses of Congress — and could see the GOP picking up seats in areas previously thought to be safe for Democrats.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.