During his victory speech on Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California was interrupted by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who vehemently shouted down his address. As the crowd grew louder, the chant of “ceasefire now” resonated through the air, overpowering Schiff’s attempts to speak. Despite his efforts to address the situation, the relentless chanting persisted, rendering him unable to proceed with his speech.
“We are so lucky, so lucky to live in a democracy where we all have the right to protest. We are so lucky to live in that kind of democracy that we want to make sure that we keep this kind of democracy,” Schiff said at one point.
Despite the removal of some protesters, others were dispersed throughout the crowd, causing interruptions in Schiff’s speech. Even though Schiff attempted to conclude his speech by acknowledging the protesters, their chants persisted.
CBS characterized Schiff as visibly affected by the protest. By Wednesday morning, Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey were leading the race to advance to the Senate special general election, with 33.2 percent and 32.4 percent of the votes respectively after 47.6 percent of the votes were counted, as reported by The Washington Post.
Democratic Rep. Katie Porter held the third position, while Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee followed in fourth place. The primary election was also determining who would fill the remaining weeks of the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term.
In this particular race, Garvey was reported to be ahead of Schiff with 34.6 percent to 30.8 percent of the votes, with 48.3 percent of the votes counted at the time of this article.
