California Democrats, torn by infighting between moderate and progressive factions, rebuked Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bid for a fifth term — for the second time this year.

The state party’s executive committee voted Saturday to endorse progressive state Sen. Kevin de León in the general election, signaling what many fear will be a divisive Democrat-on-Democrat battle going toward to the fall in California, where the party hoped to put the focus on a host of crucial congressional races that could determine control of the House of Representatives.


The endorsement delivers a lifeline to de León’s struggling campaign — and the party’s imprimatur, which is accompanied by valuable access to slate cards, email lists and voter outreach machinery that will allow him to reach an estimated 2 million Democratic voters. And he could also get an infusion of federal campaign cash shared with the party, party officials said.

Feinstein, who was also snubbed in February at the annual state convention where party activists declined to endorse her bid for reelection, had pleaded for party unity prior to Saturday’s vote. She asked the executive committee of the California Democrats, the nation’s largest state Democratic Party, to choose “no endorsement’’ — what many saw as a strategic defense to head off an aggressive challenge for the party’s endorsement by de León.

And in an effort to frame the endorsement clash in the context of the national political landscape, the senator’s team circulated a “no-endorsement” plea signed by a half-dozen Democrats whose campaigns in contested California districts are a linchpin of the national party’s strategy to retake the House.

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The final vote gave de León 217 votes, or 65 percent — beating the 60 percent required threshold — versus 94 votes, or 28 percent, for the “no endorsement” urged by Feinstein, and 22 votes, or 7 percent, for the senator herself.

The Senate contest pits two contrasting pols: Feinstein — at 85, the oldest member of the Senate — and De León, 51, a former state Senate president pro tem and son of a single immigrant mother. She is a centrist long at odds with her state party’s leftist activist grass roots, while he is a progressive who has called for new “bold leadership” from Democrats unafraid of confronting President Donald Trump head-on.

“I think it’s always good to have younger generations rise up and assume positions of leadership,’’ de León told POLITICO on Saturday.

His fight, he said, was not about “a gender issue ... it’s not an age issue.’’ Pointing to progressive icons Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, de León said, “it’s about the right values.”

The weekend’s nail-biter over the party’s Senate general election endorsement underscored the depths of the bitter divisions still lingering from the 2016 battles between more progressive backers of Sanders’ presidential bid and the more centrist faction of Hillary Clinton supporters in the nation’s most populous state.

Although the endorsement involved just a small circle of the most activist voters — a 313-member executive committee in a party that represents 8.4 million voters — many Democratic insiders said it carried potentially dangerous implications for the party beyond the state’s borders.

Not only did the internal battle threaten to extend the rift among Democrats in California — a traditional mother lode of campaign contributions — many Democratic leaders, including former state chair Art Torres, worried about the prospect of a circular firing squad.

“We have the opportunity to change the nature and the control of the House,’’ said Torres, a Feinstein backer, adding that a de Leon endorsement threatened that Democrats “won’t have enough federal money to put into those congressional campaigns.’’

“Federal money is the hardest to raise,” he said, “and if the party is going to spend money on a U.S. Senate campaign — why do it?”

For de León’s campaign, snagging the party’s endorsement was widely seen as his last shot at making a serious run at Feinstein. California’s senior senator pummeled him by 32 percentage points in the June all-party primary, winning more than 70 percent of the Democratic vote in a contest in which 32 candidates competed.

She has also dramatically outraised him: Feinstein reported $10.3 million cash on hand at the end of March, compared with $672,330 for de León, according to campaign finance reports.

But de León has gained traction among the party’s far left as the author of the controversial SB54, the California Values Act, also known as the “sanctuary state” law. The legislation, aimed at curtailing the cooperation of local law enforcement with federal immigration officials, was recently largely upheld by a federal judge’s ruling.

De Leon has also called for abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and impeaching Trump — a position that is shared by his friend, wealthy Democratic activist Tom Steyer.

In making the rounds this weekend in caucus meetings at Oakland’s Marriott Hotel, Feinstein repeatedly reminded Democrats of her seniority in Washington, her legislative leadership on issues like the assault weapons ban, and of what she vowed will be her pivotal role as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — which will weigh Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Feinstein on Saturday downplayed the symbolism of a de León endorsement and her difficulty with the party’s grass roots, insisting it would have no effect on her campaign. “This was not a close primary election, and there were 32 people on the ballot,’’ she said of the June contest. “I take nothing for granted ... we work hard.”

“I think people understand I’m now ranking on Judiciary, going into one of the biggest moments that this party has — the decisive Supreme Court justice,’’ she said. “This is a very big deal because this affects the life of every American going forward. So who that Supreme Court seat goes to is all-important.”

Asked why her decades of accomplishments in public office haven’t earned her an easy endorsement from her party in her bid this year, Feinstein jokingly shrugged: “Well, that thought occurred to me — but I wiped it out of my mind completely.”

In a measure of the contest’s intensity, party members said they were inundated with appeals from both camps in recent days, and Feinstein’s call for neutrality irked some pro-de León inhabitants of the party’s progressive wing.

“Delegates are very angry at the constant barrage of emails we’ve gotten from people who have endorsed Dianne Feinstein telling us not to endorse,” said R.L. Miller, a prominent environmental activist who was wearing one of a profusion of “United4KDL” stickers.

In caucus meetings and in hallways where he made the rounds, de León argued that Trump’s recent actions on immigrant family separations, the Supreme Court and environmental policy demanded unfailingly tough action and confrontation from Democrats in Washington. And — without ever naming Feinstein — he repeatedly drew a sharp contrast with her centrist approach and more conciliatory style on Capitol Hill.

“We need bold leadership in Washington today,’’ de León told a meeting of the Women’s Caucus. “Brett Kavanaugh is in a position to take away the rights of every American. ... That’s why we have to shut the Senate down — and never allow this individual to come to the Senate floor,’’ he said to cheers. “This is where you need the courage of your convictions — to not be on the sidelines, but on the front lines .... because what’s at stake is a generation of power.”

Steyer also drew cheers from the Democratic crowd in Oakland when he delivered a similar message to Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill: “If you don't have what it takes to lead now, when we are totally under the gun, then don't come asking for support later,’’ he said. “Lead, follow or get out of the way."

Feinstein has appeared to respond to progressive pressures as the campaign has unfolded. She moved left on a pair of issues where her moderation has long stood out in California: she endorsed legalizing marijuana, reversing her longtime opposition, and renounced her prior embrace of the death penalty.

Bill Carrick, Feinstein’s campaign strategist, downplayed the importance of this weekend’s vote, saying that the opposition of the party’s far left to Feinstein is “not a surprise; we’ve been through this in the past.’’

Carrick noted that de León “got the lowest total of any candidate” ever in a top-two primary race, while “she won every county, 70 percent of the Democrats, every congressional district of every kind of demographic that exists in California. So I think we’re in good shape.”

Still, he acknowledged that it would have been “much better for the Democratic Party” to present a unified front as the November election approaches, and to have avoided an endorsement fight.

Despite the passion of progressive voters, he said, a political reality exists even in solidly blue California. “We can’t be naïve about these swing districts,” he said. “The idea that suddenly we vaporize the Republicans in these districts and just walk in, is just crazy. They’re all going to be very, very close districts.”



CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of registered Democrats in California.