Adam Schiff advances in the California Senate race. His opponent is not yet known

SAN FRANCISCO — Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of Los Angeles, who led the first impeachment inquiry of former President Donald Trump, will move on to a general election runoff in the contest for U.S. Senate, according to a race call by The Associated Press, but it's not yet clear who he will face in November.

With votes still being counted, the race for second remains too close to call between Republican Steve Garvey, a former Los Angeles Dodgers player, and Orange County Congresswoman Katie Porter, a Democrat.

Oakland Democratic U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee was trailing her three opponents.

California has a top-two primary system, in which all candidates, regardless of party, appear on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters advance.

Garvey advancing to the general election would be good news for Schiff in this overwhelmingly Democratic state, where a Republican hasn't won statewide since 2006. Schiff ran ads propping up Garvey in the hopes of avoiding a bruising Democrat-on-Democrat race.

The Senate seat was held by the late Dianne Feinstein for more than 30 years until her death last fall. Her replacement, Laphonza Butler, was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, but she chose not to run.

In a quirk of election timing, voters actually weighed in on two questions Tuesday: who should compete for the full six-year term that begins next January, and who should fill out the final months of Feinstein's term after the November election.

Schiff, a longtime congressman and former federal prosecutor, ran as an establishment Democrat, with endorsements from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Sen. Barbara Boxer and most of the Democrats who represent California in Congress. Schiff made national headlines for leading the first impeachment inquiry into Trump and appeared to resonate with Democratic voters worried about a second Trump term.

Garvey, who played for the Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987, has never run for office before. He often struggled to articulate policy positions during his short campaign, and lagged behind his Democratic opponents in fundraising. But he managed to consolidate the Republican and conservative vote in the final weeks before the primary and was likely aided by Schiff, who ran ads elevating the Republican in the hopes of avoiding a runoff against a fellow Democrat.

Porter, a three-term congresswoman from a swing district in Orange County, ran as an outsider looking to shake things up. She has called for a ban on stock trading among members of Congress and attacked Schiff for taking corporate political money in past races. But in a presidential primary with no real competition at the top of the ticket, she likely was hurt by lower-than-usual voter turnout and a lack of engagement among younger voters and voters of color, two of her key constituencies.

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