Former Major League Baseball star Steve Garvey, who is running as a Republican for California's open Senate seat, told Newsmax on Monday that his profile is being raised due to campaign attack ads by his opponent, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
"We haven't spent a dime, so I think he's doing a good job of creating my awareness, so to speak," Garvey said on "Wake Up America." "There was a Steve Garvey that everybody knew, that took the field every night with 30,000-40,000 people, who developed a currency with the fans and the people for hard work and dedication and commitment, and I took it off the field to build businesses, help develop cures for diseases … so that people know me. They trust me. They know I care about them.
"Candace, my wonderful wife, she said, 'You know, you never took the field for Democrats or Republicans or independents or libertarians. You took the field for all the fans, and you're going to run for all the people, and I am.
"I'm the only candidate in this race that's running for all the people. My opponents vote 98%, 97% down party lines; they're running for a job. I'm running for the people, and it shows. People are standing up throughout California."
Garvey said he's been to the U.S-Mexico border in San Diego and has seen "the infiltration" of illegal migrants.
"People don't feel safe on the streets of the cities and their neighborhoods, and that should never happen," Garvey said.
"Going downtown in San Diego and Los Angeles and Sacramento [and] seeing these people who have been on the streets four, five, six years, who supposedly were given $30 billion, and where has it gone?" he said. "Because the homelessness is increasing, and I'll go to Washington and I'll start with an audit to find out where this money has been wasted, along with the defunding of police."
Garvey also commented on why he feels Democrats are losing on the issue of immigration.
"At the last debate we had the question by a Telemundo anchor and she said to Barbara Lee, 'Why do Latinos feel that Democrats don't care about them?' and [Rep.] Barbara Lee [D-Calif.] said, 'Well, we don't.' And I looked at her and I thought the Latino people, the hardworking people who came here the right way, they get up every morning, that are the foundation of California, are disrespected like this?
"I have a great currency with them for 45 years — going to the ballpark, the Hispanic population loving baseball and faith and their family. I won't take it and I looked in the camera and I said, 'You will be my priority,' along with everyone else, obviously, like I said before, but you can't pick and choose, like my opponents."
Lee, a longtime congresswoman, is vying for the open Senate seat on the Democrat side.
Garvey, a World Series champion, said that he wants the American people to "be the wind beneath my wings" as a U.S. senator in Washington.
"The momentum of the people is starting to fill the air and it's time for change in California," he said.
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