PALM DESERT, Calif.—Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former baseball star, Republican Steve Garvey, placed first and second, respectively, in California’s jungle primary on Super Tuesday.
The pair will face off in November to fill the seat held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for both the one year left in her term and the six-year term that begins in January 2025.
In California’s “open” or “jungle” primary system, only the top two vote-getters—regardless of party—move on to the general election.
With Mr. Schiff and Mr. Garvey, candidates for both parties are now running in the general election in this Democratic stronghold.
“They say in the general election that we’re going to strike out. That’s from the crowd that believes in the ’status quo.‘ Well, Ronald Reagan said that’s Latin for ’the mess we’re in.’ It ain’t over till it’s over,” Mr. Garvey said at his watch party in Palm Desert, California.
Heading into Super Tuesday, Mr. Schiff’s supporters bolstered the baseball legend’s campaign to achieve an easier Republican–Democratic match in November instead of an all-blue battle.
“My opponent has been advertising he wants me, and he’s mistaking kindness for weakness,” Mr. Garvey said of Mr. Schiff. “He’s like the pitcher that throws me a 70 mile-an-hour fastball and then watches as I run the bases.”
Republicans were shut out of the past two competitive U.S. Senate elections in California, with only Democrats on the general election ballot in 2016 when Kamala Harris defeated Loretta Sanchez and in 2018 when the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein beat then-state Sen. Kevin de Leon.
