Ex-California Rep. Katie Porter — who once allegedly dumped “steaming’’ mashed potatoes on her then-hubby’s head — is now vying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling herself a scrappy foe to President Trump.
The California Democrat launched her campaign in a Tuesday video posted on X that did not attack Newsom, who is term-limited from serving again, but claimed current elected leaders such as Trump were just feeding “bulls–t” to her state’s constituents about the policies driving their high cost of living.
“I first ran for office to hold Trump accountable. I feel that same call to serve now to stop him from hurting Californians,” Porter, 51, said in the footage, referencing her first congressional campaign in 2018.
“As governor, I won’t ever back down when Trump hurts Californians — whether he’s holding up disaster relief, attacking our rights or our communities or screwing over working families to benefit himself and his cronies,” she said.
Trump, 78, threatened but never did withhold Federal Emergency Management Agency relief for California while claiming that Newsom’s climate policies were halting water from reaching the dry, fire-ravaged southern regions of the state.
Porter, a single mother of three, also made a point in the video to boast that she “actually knows the price of groceries.”
Her former spouse, Matthew Hoffman, alleged in divorce proceedings nearly two years ago that she verbally berated him, chucked “toys, books and other objects” at him over their decade-long marriage — and once dumped scalding-hot mashed potatoes on his head.
During a heated marital fight in 2006, Porter mocked Hoffman for not being able to “read the f–king instructions” while preparing dinner — and later carried over a “ceramic bowl of steaming hot potatoes and dumped it on my head, burning my scalp,” according to April 2023 court filings in California.
Porter “routinely” called Hoffman a “f–king idiot” and “f–king incompetent,” too, the divorce filings say.
She also didn’t let him him “have a cell phone because she said, ‘You’re too f–king dumb to operate it,’ ” the papers say.
The then-congresswoman sought a restraining order against Hoffman after the filing. A judge granted her request, as well as protective custody for their three children.
In the video announcement, she went on to expound on other economic, climate-related, housing and health-care challenges facing residents in the Golden State — before heaping blame on “dangerous leaders” in Washington, DC.
When Porter delivers her line about “dangerous leaders,” footage is shown of Trump, tech billionaire Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Those figures were followed by those whom Porter labels “corrupt enablers” of the Trump agenda, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has been succeeded by Sen. John Thune (R-SD).
Porter, who served three terms in the US House and also has worked as a bankruptcy-law professor, then twice promised to channel her “new ideas” to “make Californians’ lives better” — without listing any novel plans.
“I’ll work with anybody, and I’ll say no to anybody, because I have never been for sale — and I never will be,” says Porter, who drew attention to herself in the House chamber during a contested Republican speakership vote in January 2023 by thumbing through a copy of “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F–k.”
She enters a crowded Democratic primary field for the gubernatorial contest that includes Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, after having lost her race for the US Senate last year.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) defeated her in that primary fight by more than 1 million votes. Porter erupted later about “an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is also rumored to be weighing a run for the Golden State governor’s mansion, with a Capitol Weekly poll last month showing her 2 percentage points in the lead.
