As the House member who led Mr. Trump’s first impeachment, who played a key role on the January 6 select committee and who was a leading Trump critic on cable news, Mr. Schiff has been vilified in the MAGAverse. He earned no less than three childish nicknames from the former president: Pencil Neck, Liddle’ Adam Schiff and, my favorite, Shifty Schiff. More seriously, House Republicans kicked him off the Intelligence Committee early last year and later censured him for his role in the Russia investigation, saying he had made politically motivated lies about Mr. Trump that endangered national security. All of this, in turn, has made Mr. Schiff a hero to the anti-Trump masses.
In fact, at several points along the parade route, people are shouting their gratitude and encouragement. «Keep it up!» » urges Chris (first name only!), a tour guide from Tampa, raising his fist in greeting.
When I ask what people like about Mr. Schiff, they overwhelmingly cite his fighting spirit. “He’s a warrior of the trenches,” says Steven Alexander, a longtime local fan. “Adam Schiff stands up when too many people stand down,” he adds. Many supporters express particular admiration that the congressman has been “willing to show his face” in his fight against Mr. Trump, despite the personal and professional fallout.
His reputation as a resistance leader may have cost Mr. Schiff a seat on a House committee. But it provided a major boost to his Senate bid, propelling him to a solid lead over the rest of the field. This notably includes fellow House Democrats Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, both of whom, in various ways, seem more representative of California’s Democratic electorate. (We’ll come back to this a little later.)
Mr. Schiff is, after all, a 63-year-old heterosexual white man who, for much of his House career, identified as a centrist. In ordinary times, he would probably be dismissed as too conservative, too established, too vain to represent California in all its unconventional glory in the Senate. (The last time the state elected a white person to the House was 1988.)