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For weeks, Feinstein has urged “no endorsement” in the U.S. Senate race, in what her campaign described as a gesture to party unity. She bombarded delegates with phone calls, emails, and text messages in the days leading up to the vote. And she lined up a number of surrogates to make the same case, from former party chairs John Burton and Art Torres, to six House candidates running in swing districts across the state, to legendary United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta, who gave a puzzling interview to reporter Casey Tolan in which she said de León’s presence on the ballot would create “confusion within the Latino community” and even suppress the vote.
Throughout the weekend, Feinstein and her team fought to block de León’s endorsement, holding a breakfast for delegates Saturday morning and making her pitch to swing voters in one-on-one meetings. Two minutes before the vote was held, Feinstein sent an email to delegates touting her endorsements from President Obama, Vice President Biden, Governor Jerry Brown, and Senator Kamala Harris.
Democrats involved in the process, meanwhile, alleged publicly that even sharper tactics were at work, claiming the Feinstein campaign offered individual delegates “party building” funds, in the form of promises to do fundraisers for county central committees and candidates, if they switched their votes to no endorsement. The Feinstein campaign firmly denied that this happened.
https://theintercept.com/2018/07/15/kevin-de-leon-stuns-dianne-feinstein-wins-california-democratic-party-endorsement-in-a-landslide/
