The two men vying to represent California in the U.S. Senate will face off Tuesday night in their only debate of the general election.
Republican Steve Garvey, 75, and Democrat Adam B. Schiff, 64, will meet on the debate stage at 5 p.m. Tuesday in a forum hosted by KABC-TV in Los Angeles and co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of California.
Garvey and Schiff participated in three debates in the spring during the competitive Senate primary, but shared the stage with Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
Representing California in the Senate is one of the most coveted jobs in Golden State politics, and the seats are rarely open. The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein served in the Senate for more than three decades, from her election in 1992 until her death last year.
Polling shows that Schiff has a strong lead heading into the Nov. 5 election.
Schiff finished first in the primary for the full six-year Senate term with 31.6% of the vote, with Garvey a very close second at 31.5%. In the primary election to fill the remainder of Feinstein’s term, which ends in January, Garvey finished first with 33.2% of the vote, and Schiff second with 29.3%. Laphonza Butler currently holds the seat on an interim basis.
How to watch the Senate debate
The debate will air live on KABC and other ABC affiliates across the state, and will be livestreamed on abc7.com, univision34.com and on the League of Women Voters California Education Fund’s YouTube channel. The debate will also stream on the KABC platform on Roku, Apple TV and Google TV.
Univision Los Angeles will rebroadcast the forum in Spanish at noon Wednesday on KMEX-TV.
Who are the California Senate candidates?
Schiff, of Burbank, has represented parts of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley for nearly three decades, first as a state legislator in Sacramento and, since 2001, in Congress.
Garvey, of Palm Desert, is famous in Southern California not for politics, but for his 18 years playing first base for the the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He describes himself as a “moderate conservative.”
Who is moderating the debate?
The debate will be hosted by Marc Brown, a KABC news anchor.
He will be joined by three journalists from across the state: Kristen Sze, an anchor for Bay Area ABC affiliate KGO-TV; Warren Armstrong, an anchor for Fresno ABC affiliate KFSN-TV; and Gabriela Teissier, an anchor for Univision Los Angeles.
