Former Rep. Katie Porter, a candidate for California governor, continues to face questions about her temperament and addressed the issue at a debate Tuesday night.
Porter, who drew fresh criticism this week after releasing a campaign ad that jokes about her past outbursts, raised the issue of scrutiny over viral videos of her berating a staff member and threatening to walk out of an interview with a journalist. Her conduct also was raised by the moderator later in the CNN debate.
Katie Porter participates in a California gubernatorial debate hosted by CNN at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif., on May 5, 2026.
Ethan Swope/AP
“I can’t believe that on a stage with 30 minutes of interrupting and bickering and name-calling and shouting and disrespect … that anyone wants to talk about my temperament,” Porter said.
Porter also repeatedly called out her opponents during the debate for what she characterized as unruly behavior, at one point telling them: “Boys, enough with the bickering.”
“Not one of them, not one of these men, have said, in this entire campaign, I’ve made a mistake,” she said.
Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said she thought Porter handled the exchange well.
“I thought it was smart of her as the only woman on the stage to point out to the cattiness and nastiness of the men going after one another, and then apologizing again for what she had done,” Cardona said.
Tim Krebs, political science professor at the University of New Mexico, told ABC News that a double standard applied to female candidates is well-documented in politics.
“What is often labeled as ‘too emotional,’ ‘too aggressive,’ or lacking the ‘right temperament’ in a woman candidate is frequently interpreted as toughness, strength, or decisiveness in a male candidate,” Krebs said.
“Porter was also correct to point out the inconsistency of male candidates — including one backed by President Trump, whose political brand is built on speaking in an openly confrontational and unfiltered style,” he added.
But, Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor, told ABC News that “two things can be true” — “her past behavior, which she apologized for, can be problematic. And I think that at least for some people, their view of that behavior can be colored by the fact that she’s a woman.”
“Being governor of California depends not just on your policy views, but on your temperament,” Levinson said. “You have to work with the state legislature. You have to compromise. And I think that for some people, it’s not, does she have a bad temper? It’s is her temper going to undermine her ability to be successful as governor?”
A video surfaced in October 2025 showing Porter telling a staffer during a 2021 video call to “get out of my f—ing shot.” Porter has said she’s taken responsibility and apologized for the incident.
California gubernatorial candidates former Rep. Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Steve Hilton, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan look on during a CNN California Governor Primary Debate at East Los Angeles College, on May 5, 2026, in Monterey Park, Calif.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Her campaign released an ad this week that seemingly made light of the situation, ending with Porter smiling and asking the crowd behind her, “Now, can you guys please get out of my shot?”
Among the eight most prominent gubernatorial candidates, Porter is the only woman who remains in the race. Influential organizations and lawmakers such as EMILYs List, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three sitting members of California’s congressional delegation have endorsed her.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women make up just over half of California’s population, and they make up about 57% of likely Democratic voters, per the Public Policy Institute of California. The state has never had a female governor.
From referencing driving her minivan to feeling the financial strain at the grocery store, Porter says she intimately knows the affordability issues many Californians face, and highlighting her working, single-mother lifestyle a focal point of her campaign’s messaging.
Dan Schnur, a political science professor at University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California, credited Porter for “trying to address something that has created a real problem for her campaign” — but “she tends to sound annoyed that she has to address it, which makes it less effective.”
“I’m also not sure that ‘I behave myself most of the time’ is a message that will work with voters who have seen the videos,” Schnur added.
