These Democrats hoping to replace Feinstein largely agree on policy. Sohow do they differ?

The biggest names vying to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein largely agree on many issues dearest to Democratic voters, so their differing political passions, generational perspectives and life stories will likely be front and center in the first hotly contested Senate race in California in more than a decade.

Reps. Katie Porter, Adam B. Schiff and Barbara Lee all claim the progressive mantle, an almost essential ingredient for any politician hoping to put together a winning Senate campaign in a state that champions gun control, abortion rights, marriage equality and combating climate change. They face the difficult task of defining themselves in a heavily Democratic electorate that may struggle to distinguish what separates them.

“California is not going to elect a Republican. And they’re not going to elect a centrist. The question is what kind of progressivism is most important” to voters, said Dan Schnur, a politics professor at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine University. “These three candidates represent very different strains of progressivism.”

Porter, of Irvine, is a whiteboard-toting economic populist; Lee, of Oakland, is a longtime social justice activist; and Schiff, of Burbank, is an anti-Trump litigator focused on saving democracy, Schnur said. These personas are grounded in the lives they led long before they were elected to office.

Lee’s activism dates back to her work on the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to hold a seat in Congress; and on the Oakland mayoral campaign of Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale the following year. Lee, 76, was elected to the state Legislature in 1990 and to Congress in 1998. She is best known for being the only member of Congress to vote against the measure that authorized President George W. Bush to use military force after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Lee was viewed as a pariah by many afterward, and subjected to death threats, but her qualms about granting a president too much power are now echoed by politicians in both parties.

Schiff, 62, is a former federal prosecutor who was first elected to public office during President Clinton’s tenure, and who reflected the former Arkansas governor’s center-left views while serving in the California Legislature and when he was elected to Congress in 2000. Schiff gained national prominence as he led the first impeachment effort against then-President Trump in 2019 and served as a key inquisitor on the congressional panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Porter’s political views were indelibly shaped as she

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California's assault weapons ban could soon be overturned: Here's what that means

ABC7NEWS | CONTRIBUTED grew up on an Iowa farm during the farm crisis, and led to a prominent career as a law professor specializing in consumer protection. The 49-year-old single mom has hammered bank and pharmaceutical executives during congressional hearings, frequently using a whiteboard to break down complex issues.

As early as this week, a federal judge could once again rule to overturn California's longstanding ban on assault weapons.

A protege of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Porter was appointed by then-California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris as the state’s independent monitor of California’s share of a $25-billion mortgage settlement with banks.

Porter and Schiff are wellknown to MSNBC viewers,

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