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 Tuesday at 5 p.m. on the debate stage at 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 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.
Polls show Schiff with a strong lead heading into the Nov. 5 election.
Schiff finished first in the primaries for the entire six-year Senate term with 31.6% of the vote, followed closely by Garvey with 31.5%. In the primary election to fill the remainder of Feinstein’s term, which ends in January, Garvey finished first with 33.2 percent of the vote, and Schiff second with 29.3 percent. Laphonza Butler currently serves in this seat on an interim basis.
How to watch the Senate debate
The debate will be broadcast live on KABC and other ABC affiliates across the state, and will be streamed live on abc7.com, univision34.com and on the League of Women Voters California Education Fund YouTube channel. The debate will also be broadcast 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 candidates for California Senate?
Schiff, 64, 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, 75, of Palm Desert, is famous in Southern California not for his politics but for his 18 years playing first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He describes himself as a “moderate conservative.”
Who moderates the debate?
The debate will be moderated by KABC news anchor Marc Brown.
He will be joined by three journalists from across the state: Kristen Sze, anchor of Bay Area ABC affiliate KGO-TV; Warren Armstrong, anchor of Fresno ABC affiliate KFSN-TV; and Univision Los Angeles anchor Gabriela Teissier.
