Adam Schiff to take on Republican former LA Dodgers star Steve Garvey in crucial California race to replace Dianne Feinstein: Trump nemesis beats fellow Democrats Katie Porter and Barbara Lee in crucial Senate contest

Democratic Senate hopeful, Rep. Adam Schiff, will face off against Republican Steve Garvey in California's Senate race this November, beating out two other Democrats to make the ballot. 

Schiff's campaign ran ads ahead of Tuesday's Golden State primary calling out the sole Republican in the race, former Major League Baseball star Garvey, for being a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Schiff also characterized Garvey as being 'too conservative for California,' hoping the ads would work as cat nip for Republican voters, and thus knee-capping his two Democratic rivals, Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. 

California is such a blue state - especially in a presidential election year - that Garvey as a rival practically guarantees that it will be Schiff to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein and fill the rest of her current term. 

The state has a 'jungle' style primary with the two top voter-getters, regardless of party, moving on to the November ballot. 

Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was the first candidate in California's four-way Senate race to advance to the general election

Republican Steve Garvey (right) and his wife Candace (left) celebrate his victory in California's jungle primary Tuesday night in Palm Desert, California 

The former Los Angeles Dodgers player gives his wife a celebratory kiss, with his sights now set on the general election in November 

On Tuesday night, within 30 minutes of polls closing, Schiff officially advanced to the general election, and at 9:01 the Associated Press said Garvey would be the former House Intelligence Committee chairman's opponent. 

The results were bad news for Porter, a nationally known progressive, as well as longtime California lawmaker Lee. Porter was receiving about 15 percent of the vote and Lee was only netting around 7 percent. 

The quick race announcement went practically unnoticed at Porter's Long Beach watch party, where a deejay blasted Katy Perry's Firework, a favorite at Democratic Party events, and, oddly, YMCA, a known fixture of former President Donald Trump's rally playlist. 

'We know that tonight we will come up short. Let me also say this, our opponents threw everything, every trick, millions of dollars, every trick in the playbook to knock us off our feet. But I'm still standing in high heels,' Porter said to cheers. 

She blasted the 'billionaires' who spent 'millions peddling lies and our opponent spending more to boost the Republican than promoting his own campaign,' she said of Schiff. 

Schiff's own watch party, held at a Hollywood nightclub, was interrupted by protesters shouting in support of a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, at Garvey's campaign event, held in Palm Desert, California, the former baseball great loaded his speech with baseball terminology. 

Schiff's event on election night, which was taking place at a nightclub in Hollywood, was interrupted by a large amount of pro-Palestinian demonstrators 

Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who came in third place in the Senate jungle primary, acknowledged to supporters at her Long Beach watch party: 'We know that tonight we will come up short' 

Longtime California lawmaker, Rep. Barbara Lee, came in last in the four-way priary. She addressed volunteers in Oakland, California earlier Tuesday 

'What you are all feeling tonight is what it's like to hit a walkoff home run. Kind of like San Diego in 1984,' he said. 'To the general election, to face off against Adam Schiff, this is the first game of a doubleheader. So keep the evening of November fifth open as we will celebrate again,' Garvey said. 

National progressives hammered the result. 

'Adam Schiff put his own selfishness above democracy by lifting up Republican Steve Garvey, who will now turn out Trump voters in key House races that could determine control of Congress,'  said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, whose group had endorsed Porter. 

Porter's voters were angry too. 

'I'm bummed,' said Porter supporter Chris Miller a 67-year-old retiree from Costa Mesa. 'It pisses me off,' she added when asked about Schiff's ad campaign elevating Garvey. 

'I think it shows what a strong candidate she was if he felt they had to do that - knock her down,' Miller added. 

After her brief remarks to supporters, Porter worked the room greeting them. 

'I'm not doing reporters, I'm doing human beings,' Porter told DailyMail.com when asked if she'd take a question. 

In the end, Schiff's ads seemingly had an impact.  

'The ads that have been running in opposition of Steve Garvey, for me, I watched them and I'm finding myself kind of laughing, thinking those are the exact reasons why I do want to vote for him,' 32-year-old Michael Mesbah told DailyMail.com at his polling place in downtown Huntington Beach Monday. 

Mesbah, who works in advertising, went to the polls Monday alongside his wife Allyssa, 29, a dancer, where they both cast votes for Trump and Garvey. 

He wasn't surprised when informed those ads were paid for by Schiff. 

'That would make sense because they're flattering ads if you're looking at them from that viewpoint,' Mesbah saiid.

Other voters interviewed by DailyMail.com didn't know much about Garvey, though 34-year-old Nick Mao, a general contractor in Huntington Beach, mentioned he wasn't thrilled about the ex-baseball player's women woes. 

'I mean he doesn't have my respect in entirety with just the way ... he treats women ... I think if we can get a Republican in there, it's better than what we've had, in my opinion,' said Mao, an independent, who reluctantly voted for the baseball great. 

Garvey played for the Los Angeles Dodgers between 1969 and 1982 and has now waded into politics as a Republicans in the deep-blue California 

Republican Steve Garvey (left) had a tumultuous love life before marrying his wife Candace (right), which some voters voiced concerns about as he heads into a general election fight

Long before his political career, in the mid-1980s, Garvey was involved in a spate of scandals, lawsuits and ended up in astounding debt. 

Before divorcing his wife Cynthia Truhan he became romantically involved with his secretary Judy Ross.  

While dating Ross, Garvey started seeing CNN assignment Rebecka Mendenhall, not telling the women about each other. 

As this was going on, he impregnated medical products sales representative Cheryl Ann Moulton. 

He eventually proposed and had a child with Mendenhall, though broke off the engagement.

Through all of this he was involved in litigation involving child support and custody. 

Garvey told Sports Illustrated at the time: 'Some people have a mid-life crisis. I had a mid-life disaster.' 

More recent stories from the Los Angeles Times raised questions about his behavior as a father. 

'These experiences have equipped me to better understand the adversities others face in their lives and to serve the public with empathy and integrity, something that has been lacking in Washington, D.C.,' the candidate said in a statement to The Times, when asked to respond to claims of child abandonment.