Former Los Angeles Dodgers All Star Steve Garvey has announced that he’s a candidate for the U.S. Senate.Garvey, who also played for the San Diego Padres, will run as a Republican, vying for the seat held by Democrat Dianne Feinstein before she died last month.
Three Democrats have already announced their candidacy, all current members of the House of Representatives: Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.Laphonza Butler was appointed to the seat by Gov. Gavin Newsom following Feinstein’s death.
Butler, 44, has not indicated whether she will run for a full term in November.
Garvey, 74, told the Los Angeles Times he has been planning a run for months.
“In those 20 years that I played for the Dodgers and the Padres, played up in cold Candlestick Park, I never played for Democrats or Republicans or independents,” Garvey told the Times. “I played for all the fans, and I’m running for all the people.”
Garvey lives in Palm Desert and has never been elected to public office. He played for the Dodgers from 1969 to 1982 and for the Padres from 1983 to 1987 before retiring from baseball.
He won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1981 and was a 10-time National League All Star.He collected 2,599 hits in his major league career, including six seasons of at least 200 hits, and hit 272 home runs with 1,308 runs batted in.
He finished with a lifetime batting average of .294.
Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, along with fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer. California has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Pete Wilson was reelected in 1988.
