MLB legend Steve Garvey is considering entering the race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) next year, two sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner.
Garvey, 74, is best known for his nearly two-decade career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres and winning the National League's MVP award in 1974. The former All-Star has mulled running for public office as a Republican in the past, though he's recently begun meeting with top GOP donors and party leaders as he considers getting in the state's marquee Senate primary next March.
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“He is seriously considering entering the race,” veteran political consultant Andy Gharakhani, who is advising Garvey, told the Washington Examiner. “He’s concerned about the same issues facing all Californians, out of control cost-of-living and high taxes, rising crime and lack of opportunities.”
Gharakhani, who serves as executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of New Majority, an influential business-minded donor group, said that Garvey was "being contacted by leaders up and down the state. They’re recruiting him to run from both sides, Republican and Democrat." He expects a decision to be made "in the next few weeks."
Garvey said in a statement provided through a Dodgers spokesman to the Washington Examiner that he had "been approached to run for office and am exploring that. No announcement is imminent."
Garvey's name recognition would certainly give him a boost as a Republican running in solidly blue California, which hasn't elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006. Still, he faces an uphill climb to victory should he decide to enter the race.
California operates with a "jungle primary" system, wherein candidates from all parties compete to be one of two finalists in the general election. Given the state's heavily blue tilt, there have been multiple instances where two Democrats have advanced to the general election.
Following years of criticisms from inside her party about her ability to fulfill her duties, Feinstein said in February that she wouldn't seek reelection in 2024, though she vowed to serve out the remaining 20 months of her term. She has remained adamant that she will not resign before then despite concerns about her fitness to serve and has described being a senator as her "calling."
On the Democratic side, the race to replace Feinstein in the next Congress is between Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Katie Porter (D-CA), and Barbara Lee (D-CA), with Schiff leading the polls by a significant margin.
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LA-based attorney Eric Early is the only Republican in the contest thus far. Early, who unsuccessfully challenged Schiff for his House seat in 2020, has campaigned as a hard-line conservative, setting him apart from Garvey's centrist approach. Garvey has aligned himself with centrists in the state like Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), whom he headlined a fundraiser for earlier this week.
If Garvey can convince California voters to coalesce around him in next March's blanket primary, peeling off Democrat and GOP voters from all four of the declared candidates, he could find himself in second place and on his way to the general election.