Sixth in a series of introductions of candidates for California governor running in the 2026 Primary. The top two vote-getters in the primary election – regardless of party preference – move on to the general election in November, according to the California Secretary of State.

California gubernatorial candidate and Democrat Katie Porter is a consumer protection attorney who began her political career in 2017, following the election of President Donald Trump. 

Porter was a key part of the Democratic Party’s national strategy to regain control of the United States House of Representatives in 2018.

She successfully flipped California’s 45th Congressional District, which covers Orange County, from red to blue, becoming the first Democrat to represent the area in 75 years. 

Porter was reelected in 2022 and represented the 47th Congressional District following the area’s redistricting, serving three total terms in Congress from 2019 until 2025.

During Porter’s time in Congress, she served the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Oversight and Reform. 

This work included serving as the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which targeted waste, fraud and abuse.

Previous to her political career, she worked as the independent monitor for California’s share of the National Mortgage Settlement. 

During this time, Porter fought Wall Street banks in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis, where she made sure they answered for predatory lending practices by enforcing settlement agreements.

 “One of my favorite cases we worked on, somebody got a notice of foreclosure, the house was foreclosed on,” Porter said in an X post. “And the next day they got a letter forgiving their mortgage loan. We forced the bank to cut a check to that family for six figures and to make it right.”

As we near the 2026 California Primary, Porter has decided to continue to take a stance against big corporations and billionaires, running on making California more affordable. 

“As a single mom of three kids, I know that everything feels ridiculously expensive right now,” Porter said on her campaign website. “I have seen how the purchasing power of families has gotten worse since the pandemic.”

In April, City Times published the 2026 edition of the City College Community Agenda, a survey that identified issues that students, faculty, staff and community members cared about. 

City Times Media is using the results to focus its election reporting, breaking down gubernatorial candidates’ statements shared through official sources and made during debates and forums.

Early survey results identified eight issues that matter most to the City College community.

Here is how Katie Porter stands on each.

The former congresswoman has a long-standing record protecting civil rights, specifically for the LGBTQ+ community, co-sponsoring the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Porter will continue her protection of civil rights by including gender-affirming care as healthcare and reinstating medical benefits for undocumented immigrants in California.

“For transgender people they are still facing discrimination in healthcare and housing and employment and so many other areas,” Porter said in a campaign video. “I think we need to be very clear about what’s at stake here. This is a healthcare issue and we are lighting for healthcare.”

Porter is also a big advocate for workers’ rights and believes every worker deserves a union, according to her campaign website.

She marched alongside Kaiser workers many times, most recently during an Unfair Labor Practice strike that happened early 2026.

“I am sick, Kaiser, of having to stand outside your health care facility,” Porter said at a February march. “Picketing because you won’t treat your workers right.”

Porter’s staunch opposition to billionaires politically, has resulted in a campaign promise to not accept corporate donations, emphasizing a grassroots focus for her campaign.

“I’ve never taken AIPAC money and I’m the only major candidate in this race who has never taken a dime from corporations,” Porter said in an Instagram post. “California deserves a governor who isn’t for sale—and doesn’t think democracy should be, either.”

Though she does not receive donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Porter is funded by J Street PAC, which is a pro-Israel committee. 

As of April 18, Porter has raised $8,955,287 in donations, according to the Ballot Book. 

Most of these are from small donors, with her campaign website reporting over 100,000 individual contributors and over $3.75 million in cash on hand. 

Despite running on a pledge to not take corporate donations, Porter has received a significant amount of maximum individual donations from notable CEOs and billionaires.

Porter received max donations from Chris Larsen, Ripple co-founder with an estimated net-worth of over $13.5 billion, and his wife Lyna Lam, according to Transparency USA. In total Porter has received $78,000 from this crypto-billionaire household.

Transparency USA also found that Joe Kiani, founder of Masimo with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, maxed out at $39,200.

She has received significant funds from notable unions such as the Sheet Metal Workers Local 206 PAC and the United Auto Workers Region 8 Western States PAC.

Several current and former members of Congress, including Rep. Dave Min, Rep. Derek Tran and Mondaire Jones, have endorsed Porter.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has also decided to endorse Porter’s gubernatorial campaign.

“She is the only candidate in this race refusing corporate money,” Warren said in a campaign video. “And she’s fighting for universal childcare, Medicare for all and affordable housing. We need to make sure that voters hear her platform before the special interests just drown her out.”

Other notable endorsements for Porter include organizations such as the San Francisco Women’s Political Committee, Contra Costa Young Democrats and the California Women’s List.

Porter has a long history of standing up for working-class families in California and has called it her life’s work.

So far, she has maintained this position and has promised to continue doing so as governor of California, but multiple news outlets have reported on Porter having toxic workplace allegations after a years-old video leaked of Porter berating a staffer. 

Are her staffers not considered part of the working class?

Porter’s track record shows that she has always defended working families in court, making sure they’re correctly awarded for settlement agreements, but her behavior towards her own staffers has raised lots of concern about Porter’s temperament. 

“I have taken responsibility, at this point, hundreds of times,” Porter said during CNN’s California gubernatorial primary debate. “And that’s appropriate because I made a bad decision and I treated someone badly.”

Is Porter’s temperament being used against her while her male counterparts aren’t held to the same standards?

In multiple debates, Porter’s temperament has been brought up while her male counterparts have been allowed to openly shout at each other and talk over one another, without their dispositions being brought into question. 

“Californians can decide for themselves about my temperament based on what they’ve seen here tonight,” Porter said during CNN’s California gubernatorial primary debate. “And if these bullies, these boys, bullying and bickering hasn’t been enough to raise questions about their temperament, I would really challenge that.”

Porter has championed herself as being for Californians and their families, with a central part of her campaign revolving around not being for billionaires or corporations.

Her official campaign website prides in Porter being the “only grassroots campaign in the race.”

Though she isn’t technically receiving money from corporate PACs, Porter is receiving money from billionaires individually.

This raises concerns about the authenticity of her pledge to not receive corporate donations and if Porter is finding other loopholes across her campaign.

As of May 10, Porter is polling around 9%, with Matt Mahan polling the same, while 10% of voters remain undecided. 

Voters should receive their mail ballot between 29 to 7 days before Election Day, according to the San Diego Registrar of Voters.

For more coverage of the 2026 elections, visit sdcitytimes.com.

This story was edited by David J. Bohnet and Rosemary Archer.