Katie Porter had a lot to cover in a short speech, so she pared down her biography to just a few quintessential details. She is a single mom with three "lightly supervised" kids, a congresswoman whose love of oversight extends to her minivan vanity plate (OVRSITE), and a very big fan of whiteboards.
"People on the internet call it the whiteboard of justice," said Porter, as her audience at a Huntington Beach, California, retirement community applauded in approving recognition, nearly drowning out her punchline. "It's just a whiteboard from Target."
The crowd, along with two-thirds of California's 47th Congressional District, had never seen Porter on a ballot before, so the introduction was obligatory. But it was also somewhat unnecessary. After four years of besting CEOs in viral congressional hearing exchanges and building a fundraising juggernaut, Porter has become what was once unimaginable: a national Democratic star from Orange County, the one-time conservative bastion.
