With less than two days until the polls close for the California primary election, the race for who will represent California in the U.S. Senate is drawing lots of attention. Alyssa Goard reports.
With less than two days until the polls close for the California primary election, the race for who will represent California in the U.S. Senate is drawing lots of attention.
Two candidates were campaigning in San Francisco this weekend and spoke with NBC Bay Area. Low voter turnout so far in this election has been top of mind for the candidates we spoke with, who are urging Californians to cast their ballots.
At Manny's in the Mission District, around one hundred people gathered for a chance to hear Representative Katie Porter speak about her campaign. A majority of voters we spoke with there admitted, they haven't cast their ballots yet.
In fact, when it comes to the race for the U.S. Senate, many said they were still undecided.
Among the undecided voters was Phillip Davis of San Francisco, who showed up to the event at Manny's to hear more about Porter's priorities.
"I want to listen to her, she’s been doing a great job, but so have some of the other Democratic candidates too, so it's tough to make a decision," Davis said.
Porter told the crowd that she expects this to be a very close race.
"As a professor, I’ve seen a lot of procrastination in my life, including procrastinators who got A-pluses, so I think young people are gonna turn the ballots in, but I think we are going to see a different election in the days following the election day, I think election day will not reflect the full electorate -- which is typical," Porter told NBC Bay Area.
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Porter also noted that she spoke with undecided voters in San Francisco Sunday who, after speaking with her, resolved to cast their vote for her.
The latest Berkeley IGS poll shows Republican and former baseball star Steve Garvey polling at 27%, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) polling slightly behind at 25%, Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) at 19%, and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) with 8%.
NBC Bay Area asked Garvey's campaign about what campaign events he was involved with this weekend, but a representative did not provide an answer.
Lee's team told NBC Bay Area she was campaigning in San Diego, Orange County, Inland Empire, and Los Angeles this weekend. A representative said that Lee's "focus is on the ground, with the people, in the community."
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi introduced Congressman Adam Schiff to a room of around 200 people as his final stop in a day of campaigning across the state.
In February, Pelosi officially endorsed Schiff in this race. At the event Sunday, Schiff was surrounded by other top state and local Democrats who have endorsed him, including California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
After the campaign event, Schiff told reporters that while his team is feeling good about the latest poll numbers, they are "leaving no stone unturned" in the final days of this campaign.
"We feel good about where things are, I think Californians want someone who can lead in these big fights, can protect our democracy, who can fight for an economy that works for people," Schiff said.
Schiff also noted that he has Bay Area ties: he moved to Danville when he was 11 and attended Monte Vista High School, then attended Stanford University.
While candidates are rushing to urge voters to cast their ballots soon, the young voters we spoke with say what they're hoping to see is a candidate that will make them excited to go to the polls.
Before the event at Manny's on Sunday, 23-year-old San Francisco resident Thomas Jankowski said he was undecided.
"I want to see a vision for what California can do better, and I want to be excited as a younger person, we’ve had some older senators in the past and I’m looking for a younger person with some vision to kind of show us the way," Jankowski said.
