Former Rep. Katie Porter bit back at a reporter’s question about whether she would need President Donald Trump’s voters to win the California governor’s race.
Porter is one of the top Democrats running in the race, and has been seen as the front-runner ever since former Vice President Kamala Harris decided she would not run.
A reporter from CBS Los Angeles asked Porter, as she had asked several other gubernatorial candidates, “What do you say to the 40% of CA voters who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?”
She responded in a hushed tone, “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?”
Reporter: “What do you say to the 40% of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?”
Katie Porter: “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?”
Porter then gets agitated & tries to end the interview pic.twitter.com/bw2HLal148
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) October 8, 2025
After the reporter asked her if she would win the 60% of people who did not vote for Trump, Porter said she believes she’ll win those people. She also said she doesn’t “intend” to run against another Democrat, which would further split the anti-Trump vote.
She then went into a back-and-forth with the reporter after touting her experience as a purple-district representative. Porter called the line of questioning “unnecessarily argumentative.”
The former California representative argued over the semantics of needing the Trump voters “to win” against what she would say to those voters.
“I’m happy to say that, it’s the ‘do you need them to win’ part I don’t understand. I’m happy to answer the question as you have it written,” Porter said.
She then tried to walk out of the interview, claiming the reporter was asking too many follow-up questions. “Every other candidate has answered our follow-ups,” the journalist said.
“I don’t care. I don’t care … if every question you’re gonna make up a follow-up question, then we’re never gonna get there,” Porter said, trying to leave. “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you,” she added, “and I don’t want this all on camera.”
Porter’s opponents pounced on her viral interview. Former California State Controller Betty T. Yee criticized Porter most directly.
“After watching the interview, it’s clear—Katie Porter doesn’t have the temperament to be Governor,” she said in a post on X. “As a candidate, I welcome the hard questions—the next governor must be accessible and transparent. No place for temper tantrums. No place for dodging the public’s right to know.”
Other candidates include former Los Angeles Mayor Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa and Republican Steve Hilton.
CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE KATIE PORTER SECURES EMILY’S LIST ENDORSEMENT
Porter has been out of politics since leaving her office representing California’s 47th district in the House earlier this year. She entered the California gubernatorial race in March, aiming to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
The former Orange County representative has been accused of being abrasive in the past. Politico reported in 2023 that Porter staffers called her “rage-prone,” “racist,” and had “a tendency to disparage staffers.”