Before she successfully unseated Mimi Walters last cycle with the help of DFA and it’s millions of passionate, dedicated members, Katie Porter was a Consumer Protection Attorney, spending nearly twenty years fighting powerful interests and Wall Street banks on behalf of consumers and families. As a national leader in consumer protection, she won big victories against financial institutions who cheat consumers.

Before the housing bubble burst, Porter was one of the first to sound the alarm about Wall Street’s predatory practices targeting homeowners, bringing national attention to the issue for the first time.

In 2012, then California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed her to be California’s watchdog against the banks. The banks had promised to pay billions to homeowners they cheated, and Senator Harris appointed her to make sure the banks followed through. Katie Porter and her team secured over $18 billion and helped tens of thousands of families move forward with their lives.

As an advocate, Katie has sought reforms that help families get a fair shake in our economy. She has fought against abusive credit card fees and, in 2010, helped pass important federal credit card protections for families.

She is a mom to three wonderful children and lives in Irvine, and is a long-time Cubmaster in her sons’ cub scout pack.

What am I fighting for?

Katie decided to run for Congress last cycle because as a consumer advocate and public interest attorney, she had many chances to go to Washington. She testified before Congress several times, consulted on legislation and quickly learned how Congress relies too heavily on the whispered instructions of corporate lobbyists at the expense of the very families and communities she now represents.

Her opponent last cycle voted time and time again to take working families’ hard-earned dollars away from investments in education and the environment and give handouts to multinational corporations. Katie promised, that if she won she would use her voice every day to do the exact opposite. She promised to hold the big banks accountable to the American people and legislate substantive policies that put the people of Orange County over corporate profit, and during her first 4 months in Congress she has done just that.

That work however has put a target on her back and she now has 6 opponents looking to halt that momentum, and send a message on behalf of the special interests that are being held accountable. That is why she is running an aggressive reelection campaign to ensure this seat stays in the hands of Orange County families and not the corporate benefactors backing her opponents.

My DFA Values

Before being elected to Congress, Katie spent her career fighting big banks that were cheating families. She saw firsthand how families were terrified to lose their homes or were pushed to file bankruptcy when Washington bailed out Wall Street overnight, but left families waiting years for help.

While running last year, she said that the election was about trust. That Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress were selling democracy to the highest bidder, whether it was the NRA, big pharma or huge corporations. She centered her campaign on the belief that government cannot function to hold bad actors to account if the elected officials charged with doing so are simultaneously dependent on them, and she walked the walk on the issue by pledging to refuse all corporate PAC money, and she continues to honor that pledge while serving in Congress.

Katie has also pushed for systemic reforms to take money out of politics by voting for bills such as HR-1, and served as a voice for middle class families through her work on the financial services committee.

Katie went to Washington to do what she has done her whole career– to give voice to the needs of families and to fight for a fair system, and has done just that. But she will need your help to make sure she can keep doing so on our behalf.