Republican Steve Garvey to vie for U.S. Senate seat in Calif. - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Former Major League Baseball MVP Steve Garvey is advancing to a November election to fill the U.S. Senate seat held for three decades by the late Dianne Feinstein, a rare opportunity for the GOP to compete in a marquee statewide race in a Democratic stronghold.

Garvey, a 10-time All-Star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, will face Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.

«Let's celebrate,» Garvey told his supporters Tuesday night. «Welcome to the California comeback.»

«What you all are feeling tonight is what it's like to hit a walkoff home run. Kind of like San Diego in 1984.»

Garvey famously hit a walkoff home run off Lee Smith in Game 4 to keep the Padres alive in the 1984 National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs. San Diego then won Game 5, and Garvey was named series MVP.

The race is California's first open U.S. Senate contest since 2016. Even before Feinstein announced in early 2023 she would not seek reelection, many of the state's ambitious Democrats were eagerly awaiting their shot at the coveted seat.

Garvey's candidacy, buoyed by name recognition among older voters in particular, threw an unexpected twist into the race. The dynamic between Schiff and U.S. Rep. Katie Porter grew increasingly tense in the campaign's closing weeks as both vied for a general election spot.

The first-time candidate Garvey notched his spot on the fall ballot by positioning himself as an outsider running against entrenched Washington insiders whom he blamed for rising grocery and gas prices, out-of-reach housing costs and an unchecked homeless crisis in cities.

He owes a debt of thanks to Schiff and supportive super political action committees, which ran millions of dollars in