Rep. Adam Schiff announced today that he will run for Dianne Feinstein's seat in the 2024 primaries. With his announcement, three formidable House power players are all in.
It was pretty inevitable that he would make the pitch. Senate seats in California tend to be hard to come by, and with Feinstein's age and reported cognitive decline, the fierce urgency of now is driving the early primary race, which is now between Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
Schiff is banking on his national profile after leading the first impeachment against Donald Trump to lift him over the others. Whether that is enough remains to be seen.
For her part, Dianne Feinstein has said she won't make any decision about running in 2024 until 2024. By then, the race will have been distilled into a challengers' race, with little bandwidth for her candidacy. My guess is that she will, in fact, retire, but on her terms and her own timeline. She's entitled to that, but she really must retire, because she will be humiliated in the primary race.
One thing is certain, however. This race will be a Democrat vs. Democrat race. Republicans needn't apply.
