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. She was elected as part of a Democratic wave in Orange County flipping the 45th district. In 2022, she was reelected in the 47th congressional district following redistricting. In 2023, Porter announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate, forgoing 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.
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.
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.
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 California'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.
In December 2023, Porter called for a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war after Hamas is removed "from operational control of Gaza" and blamed Hamas for the "shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine" over the years in Gaza.
In January 2023, Politico reported on criticism that Porter was "allegedly a terrible—according to some accounts, abusive and racist—boss." The accusations include allegations that she used racist language and "ridiculed people for reporting sexual harassment".
On January 10, 2023, Porter announced her candidacy in the 2024 election for the U.S. Senate from California.
Porter failed to advance from the March 5 nonpartisan primary, finishing third; Schiff and Garvey advanced to the November general election. With at least 99% of votes counted, Porter trailed Schiff and Garvey by between 800,000 and 1.2 million votes, with Porter failing to lead in any county.
After her loss in the primary, Porter said the election had been "rigged" against her. She claimed that the "rigging" criticism referred to Schiff's campaign and allies raising and spending $11 million in the nonpartisan primary to boost a Republican candidate and knock her out of the general election.
In 2003, Porter married Matthew Hoffman, with whom she has three children. Porter filed for divorce in 2013. Their divorce was contentious, and both Hoffman and Porter sought help for anger management. Her daughter, Betsy, is named after Elizabeth Warren.
Porter lives in a four-bedroom residence on the University of California, Irvine, campus that she purchased in 2011. UC Irvine has a faculty and staff housing community, University Hills, that was designed as "a way to compensate for high Orange County housing costs that can keep a recruit from accepting a job at the university". Porter's residence's price was $523,000, in line with norms in that community for university faculty and staff. In 2022, the Associated Press reported that the median price of a residence in Irvine was $1,300,000. Porter paused her teaching in 2018 after being elected. The university then continually granted Porter no-pay leave, as is the norm for faculty providing service to the nation such as NSF Program officer or member of Congress, allowing her to keep her residence on campus during her congressional tenure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Porter
