Katie Porter

The Leader California Needs

Katie Porter is running for governor of California to lower costs and protect Californians from Trump’s harmful policies. Porter knows firsthand how expensive life is for Californians. She’ll tackle the cost crisis head on, focusing on Californians’ biggest expenses: the cost of housing, child care, health care, utilities, and insurance. She’ll bring more good-paying jobs to the state, expand economic opportunity, and offset the Trump tariffs. Porter is laser focused on combating Republicans’ cuts to Medicare and Medicaid funding, strengthening California’s health care system for patients and workers, and bringing down health care costs for every Californian. 

She is running to succeed Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited in 2026. When elected, Porter will become the first woman to serve as governor of California. EMILYs List is proud to support her in this race and stand with her to ensure California continues to have a Democratic governor.

A Fighter for Consumers and Working Families

Former Rep. Katie Porter is a three-term congresswoman who earned national attention for holding the Trump administration and special interests accountable during Congressional hearings with a whiteboard. The daughter of a farmer and a small business owner, Porter has spent her career fighting for consumers and California’s working families in Congress. She spent nearly 20 years as a consumer advocate taking on Wall Street banks and powerful financial institutions that try to take advantage of middle-class families. While serving as a professor at the UC Irvine School of Law and raising her three children, Porter was appointed by then-Attorney General Kamala Harris to be California’s independent monitor of banks in a $25 million national mortgage settlement — holding Wall Street accountable and supporting California’s families after the foreclosure crisis. 

Holding the Powerful Accountable
Porter was first elected to Congress in 2018, flipping a seat held by Republicans for 75 years, and was reelected in 2020 and 2022. In 2020, Porter used her whiteboard to push the Center for Disease Control Director to provide free COVID-19 tests for all Americans. In Congress, she took on Big Pharma executives for price gouging prescription drugs and wrote new laws to improve coverage for mental health care. As a single mom of three young children, Porter used her experiences to fight for investments in child care to help California families get ahead. While serving on the House Committee on Natural Resources, Porter pushed oil companies to clean up pollution and fought to prevent Trump’s attempts to expand drilling off California’s coast. After her time in Congress, Porter returned to teaching at UC Irvine School of Law where she is training the next generation of consumer advocates.