Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) leads in the race to succeed the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, though nearly 40% of California voters surveyed are still undecided, a new Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey found.
When asked which candidate they would vote for if the March 2024 primary election for U.S. Senate was held today, 16% of those surveyed said they’d vote for Schiff, followed by 13% supporting Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine).
Ten percent said they’d vote for former professional baseball player Steve Garvey, a Republican, and 9% would support Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland).
James P. Bradley, a Republican, followed with 3%; Lexi Reese, a Democrat, with 2%; Eric Early, a Republican, with 2%; Christina Pascucci, a Democrat, with 2%; and Jonathan Reiss and Sarah Liew, both Republicans, with 1%.
Two percent of those surveyed said they’d vote for someone else.
A plurality — 39% — said they were undecided.
Support for Schiff went up by one point in the last five months since June’s Emerson California poll, while Porter’s support decreased by one point. Lee’s support increased by three points, from 6% to 9%.
“It’s still a wide open race but we seem to be narrowing it down to a top four at this point, and obviously the top two will go off to the runoff election,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said to Inside California Politics. “So there’s a lot of campaigning to do ahead — that’s what I see.”
In California’s open primary system, candidates from both parties compete in the same primary. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, then go on to the general election.
The poll was conducted Nov. 11 through 14 and consisted of 1,000 registered voters, with a credibility interval similar to a poll’s margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.