Former Katie Porter Staffer Says California Dem’s Senate Run Motivated by ‘Fame’ and ‘Power’
Katie Porter, an ex-staff member of California Congresswoman Katie Porter, believes Katie Porter is a Democratic darling. announced a 2024 run For Senate this week, she is more driven than a desire for her constituents to serve her but to grow her fame and her power.
Sasha Georgiades, a Navy veteran who worked for two years as a Wounded Warrior fellow in Porter’s office, started calling out her former boss in late December, accusing Porter in media interviews and on social media of lashing out at her for her Covid-19 diagnosis and of running a toxic office where staff members are regularly screamed at and belittled.
Interview with National Review after Porter announced her Senate run on Tuesday, Georgiades doubled down on her accusations and questioned Porter’s motives. She said she doesn’t believe Porter is “in it for the people anymore,” and is instead “in it for herself.”
“I think she likes the attention. I think she likes being a well-known name, and being a Democratic sweetheart,” Georgiades said. “I think the fame and the power, with anybody, can turn somebody in a direction that they may not have been before. I think it’s becoming less and less about her actually helping, and more and more about her ego.”
Georgiades first came forward with her concerns about Porter’s behavior in December when she shared text-message exchanges between her and the congresswoman with Dear White Staffers, an Instagram and Twitter account that exposes Congress’s worst bosses. In the exchange, Porter accused Georgiades of giving her Covid-19 and banned her from the office for the rest of Georgiades’s fellowship.
Georgiades’s account was followed by anonymous posts from other alleged former Porter staffers who shared similar bad experiences.
One anonymous poster, who claimed to be a former Porter campaign staffer who had “multiple panic attacks” while working for the congresswoman, said Porter “was always screaming at her staffers over the phone during her fundraising call time.” Another alleged former Porter staffer wrote that Porter is “prone to fits of rage, regularly disparages anyone who even slightly disagrees with her or displeases her, and is incredibly arrogant, mean spirited and petty.”
It’s unclear if the accounts from Georgiades and the anonymous posters are part of a pattern or if they are outliers. National Review We reached out this week to more than 30 Porter employees, both current and former, but most didn’t respond to our calls or messages on social media.
A current staffer spoke to National Review on background disputed the accounts, and instead described Porter as “funny, fun, and smart, and there for the right reasons.”
“She really cares about her staff and wants them to do well and go places,” the staffer said, but acknowledged that “this office is hard.” That is particularly true because Porter represents a battleground district and holds a seat that until recently had been solidly Republican.
“There’s a lot of work. There’s high expectations,” the staffer said. “When you’re in an office that every two years you have to run for reelection to represent people in Congress and hope to make their lives better, you have to show that you’re doing things.”
Gage Sitzmann, who was Porter’s first Wounded Warrior fellow, also disputed the portrayals of the congresswoman as a bad boss. “It couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.
Sitzmann, a combat veteran who was injured during Operation Enduring Freedom, called Porter a “phenomenal mentor” and “the brightest boss I’ve ever had.”
“I don’t really understand where it’s coming from,” he said of Georgiades’s criticisms. Sitzmann said he’s met Georgiades twice, but doesn’t really know her political background.
Porter was raised on an Iowa farm and is a lawyer who specializes in commercial and bankruptcy law. She studied at Harvard with Elizabeth Warren, the future senator. She became a law professor at the University of California–Irvine, and in 2012, she was appointed by California’s then–attorney general Kamala Harris to be the state’s independent monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement, a $25 billion settlement with the county’s five largest mortgage servicers over foreclosure misconduct.
Porter, a single mother with three children, was first elected to Congress in 2018 after a surprising victory against Republican Mimi Walters of Orange County. Orange County is a once stronghold for the GOP that used to be known as Ronald Reagan land. The publication of a glowing portrait featuring Porter. San Francisco Chronicle in 2020 identified her as a Democratic rising star, and a “straight shooter” who “possesses a finely tuned hypocrisy detector.”
Porter’s national profile has been enhanced by sharp exchanges with witnesses at congressional hearings, and the use of a whiteboard as a visual prop. Porter seems to use the same aggressive style in her private relationships. After a man she lived with was arrested for punching another Trump supporter at townhall events, Porter believed that it was poorly handled by the local authorities.
“I am a United States congresswoman. You can give me advice on professionalism. And see what happens,” she wrote in a text message obtained by Fox News.
Porter has also been known to pull off occasional political stunts. In 2019, Porter wore a Halloween Batgirl costume on the House floor on the day of a vote on then-president Donald Trump’s impeachment. Porter read the self-help book while Republicans struggled for a House speaker. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. She wore an orange dress to match the book’s orange jacket cover.
“I feel like that’s a prime example of, is this who you really want representing you, because now it’s about publicity stunts. Now it’s about funding,” Georgiades said.
Georgiades was a Wounded Warrior fellow at Porter’s office in 2020. This was during the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic. She worked out of the district office in Irvine, Calif. She said she went into politics with a desire to help active-duty military members and veterans, and didn’t know much about Porter when she started.
“I figured if she was willing enough to have a Wounded Warrior fellow in her office, then she was willing enough to hear the issues they were going through,” Georgiades said.
Things didn’t start well. Georgiades claimed that Porter was supposed to call her at the beginning of the fellowship. “She completely missed our first call, just kind of forgot about it,” she said.
“I was disillusioned, I guess, pretty quickly, to be honest,” Georgiades said.
Georgiades claimed that Porter didn’t seem interested in the veteran legislation she was promoting. She said she felt like Porter’s “female veteran token.” Porter was mostly focused on legislation that would build her brand as a leader who would call out corporate wrongdoing and stick up for the little guy, Georgiades said.
“There was just a lot of focus on her brand, her brand, her brand,” Georgiades said. “And so, that really started to set in for me that it wasn’t about people, it wasn’t about actually helping. It was, she has a brand that she wants to live up to.”
According to Georgiades: Porter wouldn’t support good legislation if it was written by a lawmaker she didn’t like. She slammed other Democrats and the Democratic Party. One of her staffer made a sexual harassment allegation against her. She dismissed it. Sometimes she tried to be bold, making off-color comments about race and sexuality that some staff members found offensive. And she would lash out at her staffers if they didn’t complete tasks to her liking.
“Nobody should be getting yelled at like that, anywhere,” Georgiades said, adding that other than a small number of Porter’s favorite staffers, “everybody was fair game.”
Georgiades claimed she was good friends with her former colleagues, and would share their stories. “The majority of people in that office have had troubles with her,” she said.
Sitzmann, who was in the office at the time Georgiades described, stated that he had never seen the behavior Georgiades displayed. “Regarding her yelling at staffers, I never once saw that,” he said.
One of the anonymous posters on Dear White Staffers wrote that Porter’s first Wounded Warrior fellow — Sitzmann — also “left under acrimonious circumstances.” But Sitzmann said it’s not true. He said that he left his family’s request and received a recommendation letter which allowed him to apply for his next job.
“That’s actually incredibly frustrating,” he said of the anonymous post about his departure.
Sitzmann said he stays in contact with some of his former colleagues in Porter’s office, and “it seems like everything is going great, and everything is going smoothly there.”
He said of the names that have been floated as potential Democratic candidates for the Senate seat — currently held by Dianne Feinstein — that Porter is running for, he would support Porter.
“I think she’s going to make a great candidate,” he said.
Georgiades, who is now a consultant, said that she doesn’t intend to reenter politics. In August, her fellowship was ended. This happened just weeks after Porter accused Georgiades of giving her Covid. She also barred her return to the office. Georgiades said it’s not even clear Porter got Covid from her.
She felt sore the day before, which she thought was due to her exercise routine. When she woke the next morning, she said, she “felt like I got hit by a truck,” took a Covid test, and sent the positive result to the district director. Porter accused her of violating office protocols that staffers should test for Covid at the first sign they’re not feeling well.
Georgiades said Porter tested positive several days after their contact, and it’s not clear she was the one who made Porter sick. She said that Porter had not been hypervigilant about Covid during her time with her. However, other members of the office had also tested positive.
“I was sorry. I don’t want to expose someone unintentionally ever,” Georgiades said, but added, “I wasn’t the first person she’d been around with it. I was just the first person that was around her when she caught it.”
Porter was the first candidate to announce that she will be running for Feinstein’s seat in 2024. Feinstein, who is 89 and has been asked questions about her mental state, has not stated if she intends to run for reelection. Other names floated as potential Democratic candidates for the seat are representatives Adam Schiff and Ro Khanna, and this week Representative Barbara Lee announced she’s running; unlike Porter, they represent safe, Democratic districts. Porter is likely to be attracted to the Senate seat, partly because she would not have to face reelection every other year in a swing area.
Scott Baugh, Republican of Scott Porter was narrowly defeated by Porter in November Republicans may have an opportunity to win back her House seat by supporting her Senate candidacy.