Five takeaways from the testy U.S. Senate debate between Schiff and Garvey

Adam Schiff, left, and Steve Garvey, right, on stage at the debate.

Published Oct. 8, 2024 Updated Oct. 9, 2024 6:48 PM PT

The debate was prickly and personal, with Schiff and Garvey criticizing each other on abortion, inflation, and other pivotal topics.
The name of the late Sen. Feinstein, whose longtime seat Schiff and Garvey are vying for, was repeatedly evoked on issues ranging from guns to water rights.
Some of the sharpest exchanges of the night centered around former President Trump, and how each of the candidates perceives his agenda and fitness for office.

The only head-to-head debate this fall in California’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race between Rep. Adam B. Schiff and former Dodger Steve Garvey was dominated on Tuesday by contentious exchanges on a host of national and international political issues — including immigration, the economy, expanding conflict in the Middle East, reproductive healthcare and global warming.

The sharpest exchanges, however, related to the two candidates’ vastly different stances on former President Trump.

Schiff, a Burbank Democrat with more than 20 years of experience in the House and a commanding lead in polls, cast Garvey as an inexperienced Trump backer who would push conservative rather than California values in Washington.

Californians, Schiff said, are “not looking for some MAGA mini-me in a baseball uniform.”

Garvey, a Palm Desert Republican with no political experience but high name recognition from his days as a Major League Baseball star, suggested Schiff was too caught up in party politics and his vendetta against Trump to focus on the issues most important to California voters.

“How can you think about one man every day and focus on that when you’ve got millions of people in California to take care of?” Garvey said. “I think it’s unconscionable.”

The debate was testy from the start. When Schiff in his first remarks accused Garvey of turning a blind eye to the worst impulses of Trump — who Schiff noted has said he wants to “be a dictator on Day One” — Garvey borrowed a line Ronald Reagan famously used in a 1980 presidential debate: “There you go again.”

In another exchange on immigration, in which Schiff accused Garvey of supporting Trump’s plan for mass deportations, Garvey said, “One of the two of us is honest and straightforward.”

“I would agree with that,” Schiff shot back.

The debate offered a final chance for the two candidates to square off in public before voters decide between them in the November election. Californians will be asked to vote twice in the Senate race: first, to choose Schiff or Garvey to serve out the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s final term, which ends in early January, and, separately, to serve a subsequent six-year Senate term.

It was their first debate since Garvey and Schiff won the two highest totals of votes in a more crowded primary field, in which Schiff bested fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter of Irvine and Barbara Lee of Oakland. Polls show Schiff with a substantial lead over Garvey.

Trump looms over immigration debate

Moderators of the fast-paced hourlong debate — hosted by KABC-TV in partnership with Univision and the League of Women Voters — asked Schiff and Garvey multiple questions about immigration and border security.

Schiff said the country needs to “get control of the border” with more personnel and technology to interdict people and drugs. But it also needs a “comprehensive immigration policy” that treats people humanely and provides relief for farmworkers and undocumented people who arrived in the U.S. as children, the Democrat said.

And he blasted Garvey for backing Trump, saying the ex-president’s plan for mass deportations would devastate the country and immigrant communities.

“You’re voting for mass deportations when you say you’re for Donald Trump,” Schiff said.

Garvey said his campaign has focused heavily on Latino communities. He also said border security needs to be greatly enhanced. He said Schiff, alongside President Biden, had created an “existential crisis” by backing an “open border.”

“What we have to do is secure the border. We have to finish off the wall. We have to reinstate ‘Remain in Mexico,’” Garvey said, referring to the Trump administration policy of making asylum seekers wait across the border for their U.S. hearings. “We have to reinforce our Border Patrol. We have to get back to building facilities at the border that will detain these illegal immigrants, then a judicial system that will try them.”

A record number of people have been stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, and Republicans including Garvey are pushing to make border security a campaign liability for Democrats.

“A lot of Americans are concerned about immigration,” said Mindy Romero, founder of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC. “The reason why Republicans are talking about it so much is because it works.”

While Garvey’s chances of winning the Senate race are low given how deeply blue California voters are overall, Romero said, he is still one of the highest-ranking Republicans on the ballot — and what he says about immigration could still matter for the party.

“In California, we’re not a monolith and we’re not all in sync on this issue,” Romero said. “What Garvey says and does could help motivate and mobilize Republicans.”

Garvey struggles to state a clear position on abortion

The moderators sought, without success, to bring clarity to Garvey’s position on abortion. He has said that he personally opposes abortion but that he wouldn’t back a federal ban.

“I am a Catholic,” Garvey said Tuesday night. “I believe in life at conception. I believe that God breathes a soul into these fetuses. So I am steadfast in terms of my policies on abortion.”

But Garvey also pledged to “support the voice of Californians.” He said he backed the amendment enshrining a right to abortion in the state Constitution, which two-thirds of Golden State voters supported in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

If Garvey is “listening to the voices of Californians like he claims, he would hear their voices loud and clear,” said Schiff, a longtime vocal advocate for access to abortion services. “Californians want a national right to reproductive freedom, and they don’t want the government in the business of making that decision for women.”

In a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll in early August, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, more than half of likely California voters surveyed — 52% — said electing someone who “would be a strong voice in defending abortion rights in the Senate” was very important to them.

Differences on government’s role on the economy

The differences in how Schiff and Garvey see the role of government was fully on display when they were pressed on how to address the increased cost of goods and housing.

“We’re much worse off than we were four years ago,” Garvey said. He said he supported more free-market policies, and knocked the Democrat for what he described as “Schiff-flation.”

Housing is a local issue, the Republican said, warning that more federal regulation could lead to the government becoming “overinvolved” in it.

Asked how he would help renters, Garvey said he’d do so by getting the U.S. economy “roaring again.”

For his part, Schiff said he would support more federal spending on housing, as well as an expansion of Section 8 vouchers, a subsidy that helps eligible tenants pay rent to private landlords. He also proposed a “renter’s tax credit” akin to the tax deduction that allows homeowners to write off their mortgage interest.

Garvey said he would support tariffs on imported goods shipped by any “company that threatens the success of an American company.” But, he said, he would prefer to see lower domestic taxes to foster more small businesses and reduce the need to import foreign goods.

Schiff said he doesn’t support Trump’s “across-the-board tariffs,” which he said would lead to higher prices for consumers. He said he would support “targeted tariffs” when China dumps cheap goods into the country “to try to drive American businesses out of business.”

Clashing over Feinstein’s legacy

Throughout the debate, the political specter of the woman whose seat Schiff and Garvey are vying for loomed large.

Right out of the gate, KABC anchor and moderator Marc Brown brought up Feinstein having written an assault weapons ban in 1994, and asked Garvey whether he would take any action on guns if elected.

“I believe in the Constitution; I believe in the 2nd Amendment. I believe it will never be overturned, nor should we attempt to overturn that,” Garvey said. “I do have sympathy for all of those who may have been victims of shootings, but I think that the most important thing is a stringent background check that goes much deeper than it is today, in order to to preserve the integrity of the 2nd Amendment and to be able to provide for people to defend themselves.”

Schiff said that Californians need leaders like Feinstein who are willing to “stand up to” the National Rifle Assn.

“I would support an assault weapons ban. I would support extended and universal background checks. I would support a ban on extended ammunition clips and my own bill, which would strip away the NRA’s immunity from liability,” Schiff said.

“Mr. Garvey was asked just a couple weeks ago if he would support any gun control measure, and his answer was unequivocal: ‘No.’ That is not what Californians are looking for. Californians want a leader like Dianne Feinstein who will stand up to the NRA,” Schiff said.

Later in the debate, Feinstein came up again, on the issue of environmental regulations — and whether Schiff would ease water restrictions on farmers.

Schiff said that he would not “support eviscerating” regulations, but that he would do what Feinstein did, looking “for those opportunities where we can have a win, ... for our farms, our cities and our environment.”

Garvey said that environmentalists need to work with farmers, and that he is a “consensus builder” who can help make that happen. He called water the “platinum issue” that Schiff doesn’t know how to fix.

Schiff later evoked Feinstein’s name on the economy, saying that he realizes many are struggling financially and that he will work with “community leaders and stakeholders in every part of this Golden State” in “Feinstein’s model.”

“Mr. Schiff, you’re noDianne Feinstein,” Garvey said in another echo of a previous debate, when Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen blasted GOP rival Dan Quayle in 1988 for likening his Senate experience to John F. Kennedy’s.

“I remember when this state was the heartbeat of America, and now it’s just a murmur.”

Schiff, in response, said that Feinstein was a friend of his — and that he would never “pretend to be” her equal because she was a “giant.” But he suggested he is far more similar to her than Garvey is.

“While Mr. Garvey was signing baseballs for the last 37 years, I was seeing presidents of both parties and governors of both parties sign my bills into law,” Schiff said.

Back to Trump

After the debate, in small gaggles with reporters, both Schiff and Garvey came back to another politician not in the room: Trump.

Schiff said it was clear that Garvey is “for Trump” and his agenda.

“He’s for states being able to ban abortion. He’s against any form of gun safety legislation. He’s for opening up the oil spigots. These are views right out of Project 2025 and Trump, but they are not in sync in California,” Schiff said.

Garvey said that he’d been unfairly tied to Trump, and that “people know that we’re two entirely different people.”

He said Schiff’s attempt to “paint [him as being] far-right” wouldn’t stand up, because “people know I’m conservatively moderate.”

Garvey declined to say whether he would vote for Trump in November, but confirmed that he’d voted for him for a third time in this year’s primary.