Representative Adam Schiff, who led the prosecution of Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment, won California’s open Senate seat, according to The Associated Press, beating his Republican opponent, Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball star and a first-time candidate.
Mr. Schiff, 64, a longtime Democratic leader, had an easy path in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly 2-to-1 in registered voters.
He will replace Senator Laphonza Butler, a California activist and labor leader who was appointed last year to fill the seat after the death of Dianne Feinstein. Ms. Butler announced shortly taking the seat that she would not run for the office. Before her death at age 90, Ms. Feinstein had represented California in the Senate for three decades.
Mr. Schiff is well known in Washington, and, with the general election odds in his favor, spent much of the past several months campaigning for other Democrats around the nation.
Before the election, he had maintained a lead of at least 20 percentage points over Mr. Garvey in the polls, despite Mr. Garvey’s high-profile years as a first baseman with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.
A former federal prosecutor and 12-term congressman from Burbank, Calif., Mr. Schiff rose to prominence as a ranking member and then chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, where he led the first impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump’s efforts to solicit election assistance from Ukraine.
The role made him a hero among liberal voters and a target of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. In an interview last month, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Schiff and Democrats like him were a greater threat to national security than foreign enemies such as Russia or China, and he suggested that the military should be deployed against them.
Mr. Schiff’s opposition to Mr. Trump also made him a magnet for Democratic donors. As of July, the most recent reporting period, he had raised nearly $38 million in campaign contributions, more than three times the nearly $11 million raised by Mr. Garvey.
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