Schiff, 64, has represented communities in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley for nearly three decades.
Schiff was an assistant U.S. attorney — a federal prosecutor — before being elected in 1996 to represent a Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena district in the state Senate, which he did for four years. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2001, and is in his 12th term there representing California’s 30th Congressional District — which stretches from Beverly Grove to Pasadena and from Echo Park to the Angeles National Forest.
Schiff served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee between 2019 and 2023, and led the first House impeachment of President Trump over claims that Trump had withheld military aid from Ukraine while pressuring leaders there to announce an investigation into his 2020 Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Schiff also served as the lead prosecutor in the subsequent impeachment trial in the Senate, where Trump was acquitted.
Later, Schiff served on the Jan. 6 committee that investigated an alleged conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election, including with the assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Trump was impeached a second time on charges he incited the insurrection, but again was acquitted by the Senate.
The two impeachments greatly increased Schiff’s national profile. It also turned him into a lightning rod to the political right, with conservatives condemning him for what they viewed as unfair attacks on Trump.
House Republicans censured Schiff in 2023, alleging that he had “purposely deceived” Congress and the American public years prior by claiming there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Subsequent investigations found the Russians did intervene in the election on Trump’s behalf and that his campaign welcomed the help, but did not conclude there’d been a criminal conspiracy. Schiff has defended his actions and called the censure a “badge of honor.”
Garvey, 75, is famous in Southern California not for politics — where he calls himself a “moderate conservative” — but for playing Major League ball.
The first-time political candidate was a star first baseman for the Dodgers in the 1970s and early 1980s — winning the World Series with the team in 1981 — and later a hero with the San Diego Padres, helping them reach the World Series in 1984. He won four Gold Glove awards and was a 10-time National League All-Star.
Garvey cultivated a squeaky-clean, all-American image as a player, and has campaigned as a “role model” and “devoted family man.”
His clean image was marred by scandal in the late 1980s when Garvey divorced his wife, got two other women pregnant, then married a fourth woman, his current wife. Garvey has struggled with money for years, as well — leaving a trail of unpaid debts — and owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, according to recent financial disclosures.