Leading Dem candidate for California governor Porter stops TV interview over Trump voters questions

Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter cut off a TV interview with a reporter over questions about her likely needing Trump voters in the state to win the post. 

CBS News correspondent Julie Watts asked Porter in an interview that aired Tuesday, according to The Hill news outlet, “What do you say to the 40 percent of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?”

Porter, who as a House member represented part of the state's Orange County, which has a conservative streak, responded: “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?”

The interview then appeared to devolve as Porter and Watts appeared to argue over the semantics of the questions – until the candidate said he wanted to end the interview, which Watts has been conducting with those running to replace outgoing Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, who must leave his post because of term limits.  

"I don't understand," Porter, who is the single-digit front-runner in the party primary, said near the end of the roughly 3-minute interview.

When asked whether she believes she will win the other 60% of California voters, Porter said, “In a general election? Yes. If it is me versus a Republican, I think I will win the people who did not vote for Trump.”

Watts also asked Porter what she thinks would happen if the race was her versus another Democrat, to which Porter responded, “I don’t intend that to be the case.” She argued that she has already built up name recognition.

When Watts pressed her, Porter appeared to become irritated, saying the interview was becoming “unnecessarily argumentative.” Watts said that CBS News had asked the same question to the others in the race. 

“I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m gonna call it. Thank you,” Porter said, looking off camera.

“You’re not going to do the interview with us?” Watts asked.

“Nope, not like this I’m not. Not with seven follow-ups to every question you ask,” Porter said, adding that she didn’t care that the other candidates had been asked the same question.

“I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don’t want this all on camera,” she added.

Porter is currently leading in the gubernatorial race. A University of California, Berkeley poll released in late August found that Porter led 11 other candidates with 17% support. The next closest candidate was Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco with 10%.

There are still 38% of voters who are undecided in the 2026 race.