Katie Porter

She was elected as part of a Democratic wave in Orange County flipping the 45th district, covering much of south-central Orange County, including Irvine, Tustin, and Lake Forest along with large portions of Anaheim and Laguna Niguel.

In 2022, she was reelected in the 47th congressional district following redistricting.

In 2023, Porter announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate, foregoing reelection to the House of Representatives.

She was defeated after failing to advance from the nonpartisan primary won by Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey.

Porter graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School and has taught law at several universities, including the University of California, Irvine, the William S. Boyd School of Law, and the University of Iowa.

In the House, she was deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has received media attention for her questioning during congressional hearings.

Porter was reelected in California's 47th congressional district, defeating Republican nominee Scott Baugh with 51.6% of the vote to Baugh's 48.4%.

She was the first Democrat to represent the 45th district or its predecessors since it was created in 1953.

Katherine Moore Porter (born January 3, 1974) is an American politician and lawyer who has been the U.S. representative from California's 47th congressional district since 2023, previously representing the 45th congressional district from 2019 to 2023.

Porter was born on January 3, 1974, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

She grew up on a farm in southern Iowa.

Her father, Dan Porter, was a farmer and banker.

Her mother, Liz, was a founder of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.

After graduating from Phillips Academy, Porter attended Yale University, where she majored in American studies, graduating in 1996.

Her undergraduate thesis was titled The Effects of Corporate Farming on Rural Community.

She was a member of Grace Hopper College (then called Calhoun College) at Yale.

Porter also interned for Chuck Grassley during this time.

Porter later attended Harvard Law School, where she was the notes editor for the Harvard Women's Law Journal and a member of the Board of Student Advisers.

She studied under bankruptcy law professor and future U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and graduated magna cum laude with her Juris Doctor in 2001.

Porter was a law clerk for Judge Richard S. Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Little Rock, Arkansas.

She practiced with the law firm of Stoel Rives LLP in Portland, Oregon, and was the project director for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges' Business Bankruptcy Project.

Porter was an associate professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Law.

In 2005, she joined the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Law as an associate professor, becoming a full professor there in 2011.

She was endorsed by End Citizens United, a political action committee seeking to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court 2010 decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Porter has cited an overhaul of campaign finance laws and protection of voting rights as legislative priorities.

Porter ran for reelection to a second term.

She advanced from the top-two primary in first place and faced off against the second-place finisher, Republican Mission Viejo Mayor Greg Raths, in the general election.

Porter won with 53.5% of the vote to Raths's 46.5%.

Also in 2011, she became a tenured professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.

In March 2012, California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed Porter to be the state's independent monitor of banks in a nationwide $25 billion mortgage settlement.

As monitor, she oversaw the banks' implementation of $9.5 billion in settlement reforms for Californians.

In 2015, Porter consulted for Ocwen.

Porter's 2016 textbook Modern Consumer Law addresses consumer laws in light of Dodd–Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In the 2018 elections, Porter defeated two-term incumbent Republican Mimi Walters in CA's 45th congressional district.

Her election was part of a historic wave for Democrats in Orange County that saw them flip four seats centered in the county, resulting in Democratic control of all seven seats including the historically Republican County.

Porter and Harley Rouda, also elected in 2018, were the first non-Hispanic Democrats to represent Orange County-based districts since Jerry M. Patterson left office in 1985.

Porter did not accept corporate PAC money in her bid for Congress.

In June 2019, Porter became one of the first Democrats in a swing district to support an impeachment inquiry following Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation.

She voted for both the first and second impeachments of Donald Trump.

, Porter had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 98.2% of the time.