Katie Porter, the Democratic candidate for California governor, released a 30-second campaign spot Monday that tried to repackage her history of on-camera outbursts as a lighthearted personality quirk. Critics from both parties responded by calling it one of the worst political ads they had ever seen.
The ad showed Porter grocery shopping, filling up her car with gas, and her “grown kid” sleeping on her couch, everyday scenes meant to soften an image badly damaged by viral videos of the former congresswoman berating staffers and clashing with journalists. The spot ended with Porter turning to the camera and quipping, “Now, could you guys please get out of my shot?”, a direct callback to the incident that started her troubles.
That incident, captured in a 2021 video that surfaced in October 2025, showed Porter snapping “get out of my f—ing shot” at a staffer during a video call touting the Biden administration. A separate video showed her threatening to end an interview with a journalist. Together, the clips raised pointed questions about the temperament of a candidate who wants to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, and the new ad, rather than putting those questions to rest, appears to have amplified them.
The reaction on social media was swift and bipartisan. Harry Cole, editor of the US Sun, posted on X:
“This is by far the worst political ad I’ve ever seen.”
Michael Curry, vice chair of the Republican Party of Riverside County, was sharper. He wrote on X that Porter was turning abusive conduct into a punchline:
“An abuser turning her own behavior into a campaign joke. Katie Porter’s new ad is contempt for every staffer she mistreated, every person she’s screamed at, and every plate of mashed potatoes she’s thrown.”
The criticism was not limited to Republicans. Keith Edwards, a Democratic strategist, posted his own assessment: “I’m at a loss for words. This is so bad.”
When a candidate’s own party strategists publicly pan her messaging, the ad has not done its job. Porter’s team presumably intended the spot to show voters a leader who can laugh at herself. Instead, it reminded everyone of the behavior she was trying to move past, and invited fresh scrutiny of whether she has actually moved past it at all.
In an interview with KRON 4 on Monday, Porter framed the ad as proof of personal growth. She told the station that the spot showed “somebody who’s taken responsibility again and again in this race and is also able to laugh at herself and show that she’s grown.” She added, “I think that is a mark of leadership and I want to show people that.”
The next night, at a California gubernatorial debate, Porter addressed the controversy again. “Everybody in California had a chance to see me on stage with that reporter in the last debate, and see exactly how I conducted myself,” she said. “Californians can decide for themselves about my temperament based on what they’ve seen here tonight.”
She also said in the KRON 4 interview: “This ad is about showing them, yes, I can [do better]. And I absolutely can have the ability to hold myself to account and rise above it and do better and win this race.”
The difficulty with that argument is that “rising above it” typically does not involve turning the offending behavior into a campaign punchline. Voters watching the ad do not see contrition. They see a winking reference to a moment that, for the staffers on the receiving end, was not funny.
Porter’s rivals in the 2026 governor’s race have not been shy about exploiting the opening. The Washington Examiner reported that opponents including Antonio Villaraigosa, Stephen J. Cloobeck, Xavier Becerra, and Betty Yee used the viral clips to attack Porter’s fitness to lead. Yee called Porter “a weak, self-destructive candidate unfit to lead California.” The Examiner also noted that Porter told CBS Sacramento reporter Julie Watts she did not need the support of the 6.1 million Californians who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 if she faced a Republican in the runoff, a remark that did nothing to broaden her appeal.
That kind of dismissiveness toward millions of California voters is a pattern, not a one-off. It fits neatly alongside a donor email Porter sent just a day after the April 25 assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. That email included the phrase “F— Trump” four times, once even in the subject line. Whatever one’s politics, the timing alone showed a remarkable lack of judgment.
Democrats who have watched their own candidates stumble into self-inflicted crises in recent cycles may recognize the trajectory. The problem is not one bad clip. It is a pattern of conduct that raises questions about whether a candidate can handle the pressures of executive office without lashing out at the people around her.
AP News reported that the fallout has intensified scrutiny of Porter’s candidacy within her own party and prompted discussion that other Democrats, including Sen. Alex Padilla, may see an opening in the governor’s race. Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta told the AP, “There are quite a few people looking at this field and saying, ‘There has got to be somebody better.'”
Porter does retain some institutional support. Teamsters California, EMILY’s List, and End Citizens United have defended her and refused calls for her to step aside. Her campaign spokesperson, Peter Opitz, told the AP that “Katie is never going to be shy about calling out ‘B.S.'”, framing the combativeness as an asset rather than a liability.
That framing may play well with a narrow slice of the progressive base. But California’s jungle primary system means Porter needs broad support to survive a crowded field. Telling six million Trump voters their support is unnecessary, sending profanity-laced fundraising emails the day after an assassination attempt, and then turning a staffer-berating video into a campaign joke is not a strategy designed to build coalitions. It is a strategy designed to go viral, and Porter has already learned the hard way that going viral cuts both ways.
The broader pattern of Democratic leaders prioritizing performative combativeness over governing competence is nothing new. But Porter’s case is unusually stark because the evidence is on video, the criticism is bipartisan, and the candidate’s own response, a 30-second ad that winks at the problem, suggests she still does not grasp its seriousness.
Porter built her national profile as a congresswoman who grilled corporate executives with a whiteboard and sharp questions. That persona earned her a devoted following and a reputation as a progressive fighter. But there is a wide gap between tough questioning of powerful witnesses in a hearing room and cursing at subordinates on a video call.
The first is accountability. The second is something voters in both parties recognize and dislike. And no amount of lighthearted ad copy bridges that gap.
California’s governor oversees the world’s fifth-largest economy, manages a sprawling state bureaucracy, and must work with legislators, agency heads, and local officials who will not always do what the governor wants. The job demands steadiness under pressure. Voters watching Porter’s viral clips, and now her ad, are entitled to ask whether she has it.
Meanwhile, the political landscape continues to shift around questions of election integrity and accountability at every level of government. Voters are paying closer attention to character and conduct, not less. A candidate who responds to legitimate concerns about her temperament by joking about them on camera is betting that voters will find the humor charming rather than dismissive.
Porter’s defenders say she is a fighter. Her critics, including members of her own party, say the fight she keeps picking is with her own credibility. The ad was supposed to settle that debate. It did the opposite.
When the best case a campaign can make is “she can laugh at herself,” the question voters should ask is whether anyone else is laughing.
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