Since the March Senate primary, in which Steve Garvey beat out several strong Democratic candidates to advance to the November election, the Dodgers and Padres saga has been remarkably quiet.

He has been aggressively raising money to try to match the financial muscle of his opponent, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), giving numerous television interviews and showing up to a congressional baseball game in a Dodgers uniform.

And last month he When he started posting photos and videos, he got caught up in a wave. He had just returned from a week-long visit to Israel, during which he met with families whose loved ones were killed or kidnapped in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 were taken hostage by the militants.

Many remain detained in the Gaza Strip, possibly in tunnels dug under the Strip's main population centres.

“We're in a country that's under siege, that's at real war,” Garvey told The Times. “I wanted to speak about this with a greater sense of authority.”

But back in California, Garvey's campaign strategy has at times been more subdued, or at least somewhat different from that of past Senate candidates.

In the spring, Garvey skipped the state Republican convention and continued to play down his support for former President Donald Trump, for whom he voted in 2016. Last month, Garvey Television Interview He actually voted for Trump over someone like former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, in the presidential primary in March.

Garvey will not attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Schiff leads voters 62% to 37%, a spokesman said. May poll From the Public Policy Institute of California.

Garvey launched his campaign on October 10, saying the attacks in Israel had made him even more eager to visit the country, and toured a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was attacked and a music festival that was also targeted. The former baseball player said little about Israel's military operation in response to the attacks. The international community has harshly criticized the brutality of the IDF's attacks on Gaza.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its death toll. Garvey said it was not his place to tell Israel how to attack. He said that if he were a senator, he would attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to parliament later this month.

Some Democrats have said they will boycott the event.

From a purely political standpoint, strategists said the visit was smart because it brought much-needed attention to Mr. Garvey. But they said Mr. Garvey's efforts to cast Mr. Schiff, who is Jewish, as a staunch supporter of Israel would likely be ignored. After one of his primary opponents, Rep. Barbara Lee, endorsed Mr. Schiff, Mr. Garvey criticized the two Democrats because Mr. Schiff, of Oakland, was an early advocate of a permanent ceasefire, even though Mr. Lee and Mr. Schiff differed on the issue.

Unlike Schiff, Garvey is confused. Asked whether he supported a two-state solution in which Israel would recognize a Palestinian state and Palestine would recognize Israel, Schiff has long been a believer in the two-state solution.

During his visit, Garvey After receiving a briefing from Israeli Defense Forces officials, the families of hostages Guy Gilboa Dallal and Samara Weiner of Burbank; Garvey's Campaign Weiner, who is also a lawyer, said in a video posted that he used to vote for Schiff but now supports the Republican Party. Weiner is also working to build the Israel Softball Association's team for the 2028 Olympics.

“He pandered too much to the far left of the Democratic Party,” Weiner said. He told Fox News. “It created anti-Semitism, which led directly to violence against Jewish people, my community. I didn't think Adam Schiff would vote for the weapons Israel needs to defend itself.”

Schiff has indeed voted multiple times in favor of increasing defense funding for Israel, sponsoring a bill this year that allocated more than $26 billion to Israel along with aid to Gaza, and he also sponsored a bill to give Israel an additional $2 billion for its Iron Dome defense system.

A television screen shows footage of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) (left) and his Republican opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Steve Garvey.

(Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press)

Schiff has been criticized on the left for not calling for a ceasefire and saying Israel has the right to defend itself. He has broadly said he supports President Biden's approach to dealing with the war, which he says involves pressuring Israel to reduce civilian casualties and seeking a diplomatic solution to release the hostages and end the hostage war.

Although the longtime Burbank congressman's campaign raised far more money than Garvey's and the primary was close, Schiff's huge lead in registered Democratic voters in California gives him an almost insurmountable advantage. It's unclear whether attacking Schiff's positions on Israel would be an effective way for Garvey to close the gap.

“Following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, I have supported providing Israel with all the materials it needs to defend itself, end Hamas control of Gaza, and obtain the release of all hostages, while at the same time protecting innocent civilians and providing humanitarian assistance,” Schiff said in a prepared statement. “Unlike Mr. Garvey, I support a regional agreement in which Saudi Arabia recognizes Israel and allows Israel a path toward a Palestinian statehood. Such a two-state solution would ensure lasting peace.”