When Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., announced she would not be seeking reelection to instead run for U.S. Senate, it opened up one of the most competitive House seats in the country for a bruising battle.
Voters in California’s 47th District are likely familiar with the candidates on the ballot: State Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat and former State Assemblyman, and Orange County GOP Chair Scott Baugh.
For Min, who has received Porter’s endorsement, it was a brutal primary. He depleted most of his war chest battling off political newcomer Joanna Weiss. During the primary, Weiss attacked Min repeatedly for being charged with a DUI in May 2023, portraying him as dishonest and a weakened candidate. Ultimately, it was not enough to convince voters, and Min secured the nomination.
Min said the attacks from within his own party failed to land with voters, and he believes that from the right won’t land either.
“It was the worst mistake of my life, but it was not characteristic of who I am. I'm a dad of three young kids. I'm an Eagle Scout. I've never had any incidents like that. And I never will again,” Min said. “[The] opposing campaign tried to make this an issue about whether you could trust me. And I have a long record of public service, a long record of keeping my promises, including in office.”
Min’s campaign, while rebutting Republican sniping about his DUI conviction, have been quick to point out that Baugh faced 20 criminal charges, including four felony charges, for violating campaign finance laws and perjury stemming from his 1995 campaign. The perjury and campaign finance reporting charges against Baugh were later dismissed, and Baugh agreed to pay a civil fine of $47,900 for violations of the California's Political Reform Act following a multiyear investigation.
When asked if he would like to speak to those attacks by Democrats, Baugh declined.
“I don’t need to clear the air,” Baugh said firmly.
Baugh came within three points of Porter in 2022, a very close race for someone deemed to be a rising star in the Democratic Party. Baugh said he feels confident that he can flip the seat this time around.
“When I ran last time, I ran against Katie Porter, who had $29 million to my $3 million,” Baugh pointed out. “I've also had two years to campaign — last time, I only had 10 months to campaign.”
While Baugh’s deep roots in Orange County politics lends itself to deep relationships within the district, Min was quick to point out “this is not your father's Orange County,” citing an influx of immigrants and children and grandchildren of immigrants to the district.
Min’s challenge, if elected in November, will be to put his own stamp on the office without being cast in Porter’s shadow. But one common area Min says he does plan to focus on is picking up the torch of her government accountability work in Congress.
“We have to make people believe again that institutions like Congress, institutions like the judiciary, can serve them and aren't just out there to serve themselves,” Min said. “This is really important to me as an American, as someone who really strongly believes in the values of this country. And so absolutely the same rules that apply to everybody else out there ought to apply to members of Congress. That is why 100% Support the Stock Act.”
Porter’s “Truth to Power” leadership PAC has endorsed Min, required candidates to refuse to accept corporate PAC money and support a ban on congressional stock trading. The Stock Act, one of Porter’s magnum opus of sorts on the Hill.
And while Min jokes no one will confuse him and Porter (“The obvious thing here is I'm not Katie Porter, in case that's not obvious from looking at me,” he chuckled), they do have similar paths from Harvard Law School (he was a year behind her) to teaching at UC Irvine (“She used a whiteboard…I used PowerPoint”).
But Min describes himself as a more moderate Democrat in some areas — “I'm seen as a little bit more moderate on some issues, including public safety, where I have the strong backing of law enforcement in my race,” — he is adamant a women’s right to choose is a nonnegotiable.
“Codifying Roe v. Wade, and restoring women's autonomy over their own health care? That's one, two,’ rattled off Min of his day one priorities. “And three, gun violence. It's been a passion of mine, and trying…to combat and reverse the trends on climate change, we are in a crisis.”
Baugh, meanwhile, is staunchly against abortion, but says “it’s never brought up” when he’s knocking on doors or out on the campaign trail. He contends that people he speaks to are concerned about the price of groceries and fuel.
Despite his attacks on Min, Baugh says he is prepared to put aside partisanship if elected to Washington.
“I have a history of working across the aisle. I was in the state legislature in the minority party at the time, and I got a lot of work done,” he said, pointing to the philosophy of a private Christian school he started in Orange County. “We believe in Aristotelian intellectual hospitality, which means that you don't accept an idea or reject it because of its source, but you examine it, you find out what's good about it and what's not good. You accept the good, you reject the bad, and you often come up with a better solution than you can on your own.”
Whether Baugh is able to pull off an upset and flip Porter’s old seat from blue to red remains to be seen. The Cook Political Report has rated the seat “lean Democrat” – but Baugh came within striking distance before, and he said his campaign is “leaving no stone unturned” this time.
“We're going after every single voter. We're knocking on our doors every week, and we're getting the message out, and the people are responding.”
Min says he’s ready for the challenge
“Control the House runs through California's 47th congressional district,” Min said. “We know what we have to do — we have to reach voters, we have to share our message, refine our message, but I think we believe we can do that. I think I'm the right candidate. I won here before. I'm battle tested. I have a message that resonates with the voters.”