GOP attorney Eric Early announced Tuesday that he’s running for the Senate seat vacated by retiring California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
The Los Angeles litigator is the first big-name Republican to announce his candidacy this year in the predominantly liberal state.
California hasn’t had a Republican Senator since John Seymour, who was defeated by Feinstein in a special election in 1992 after less than two years in office.
Early, who states on his campaign website that he is “not a career politician,” launched his campaign with a video promising “common-sense solutions” on issues such as crime, inflation, manufacturing, and education.
“I’m running for all the forgotten Californians, all the forgotten Americans, and that crosses party lines, frankly,” Early said on KABC radio. “There are tens of millions of people in this country and millions in California who feel that we have been left behind.”
When asked to assess his chances of breaking through the state’s ingrained political tilt, Early responded: “I live in Los Angeles, I talk to Democrats all the time, and even they are saying that things have gone too far.
“Crime; taxes; open borders; fentanyl killing tens of thousands of our youth; no punishment for violent criminals; indoctrination of our children on sexual issues in their schools; parents being shut out of their schools; genetic males in women’s sports, a government that supports the Antifa ideology—the list goes on and on,” Early said.
The Republican candidate further deplored what he observed to be the “destruction of free speech” and what he said are the “two systems of justice in our nation, right now.”
Early also expressed deep concerns about the Ukraine war’s potential to escalate into a World War.
For the 2024 elections, Early is facing stiff competition from political veterans in what looks to be a crowded race: according to the Federal Election Commission, 15 other candidates are vying for Feinstein’s Senate seat.
Earl’s most prominent opponents are Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff of Burbank, Katie Porter of Irvine, and Barbara Lee of Oakland.
The 64-year-old attorney has run for office multiple times in recent years. In 2020, Early lost a congressional race to incumbent Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. In 2018 and 2022, he twice failed to advance past the primaries in the state’s attorney general race.
California has nearly 22 million registered voters, of which 10.3 million are Democrats and 5.2 million are Republicans, with 6.5 million independent voters.
If Early succeeds in rallying the state’s Republican voters behind him, he may have a realistic chance of becoming the first Republican Senator from the State of California in 30 years—especially considering that California’s jungle primary system sees the top two vote-getters of the March primary advance to the general election, regardless of party.
