Attorney Eric Early, a loyalist to the former president

Donald

Trump, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2020, announced Tuesday that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by outgoing California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The Los Angeles native, who previously worked in the entertainment industry on animated kids’ shows like GI Joe and Jem and the Holograms, said he was looking for the office.

to provide common sense conservative solutions to issues such as crime, immigration and foreign policy that he believes are not being heard in the nation’s capital

.

“I stand up for all the forgotten Californians, all the forgotten Americans, and that crosses party lines,” he said on KABC radio. “Frankly, there are tens of millions of people in this country and millions in California who feel we’ve been abandoned.” Early made no specific policy proposals, but gathered a laundry list of concerns about the country’s direction, from the fentanylfentynal crisis to concerns that the country is reeling as it enters World War III because of its aid to Ukraine.

The 64-year-old has run for office multiple times, losing to incumbent Democratic Representative Adam Schiff in a congressional contest in 2020 and failing to advance past the primaries in the 2022 and 2018 attorney general races.

There are currently 15 official candidates for Feinstein’s Senate seat, according to the Federal Election Commission. The most prominent are Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff of Burbank, Katie Porter of Irvine, and Barbara Lee of Oakland.

But because of California’s jungle primary system, the top

–

two voters in the March primary will advance to the November general election

by

2024, regardless of party. Despite the Democrats

‘

political dominance in California, if a Republican contender can consolidate support among GOP voters, he or she would have a good chance of finishing in the top two in the primary and running against the top Democrat in the November vote 2024.

In at least one past campaign, Democrats have touted early conservative positions in hopes of elevating the candidate they believe would be the easiest to beat in a general election.

In the 2022 Attorney General’s race, supporters of Democrat Rob Bonta placed ads on conservative radio stations reporting Early’s opposition to abortion rights.

Early is a vocal supporter of former President Trump, espousing some of the Republican parties’ most conservative positions, including new restrictions on abortion, and has called for critical race theory to be banned in California schools.

On Tuesday, he spoke out against young students learning about gender identity in schools and against allowing transgender athletes to play on the team of the gender they identify. “I have nothing against transgender people. Zip. Zero. I believe in live and let live. But I don’t want our kids starting kindergarten getting press about these highly sexualized issues,” Early said. “I don’t want people who were born male and then transition to females to join our daughters’ and wives’ sport.”

While such positions can be effective in other states, they pose a challenge in California, where registered Democratic voters outnumbered their Republican counterparts nearly 2 to 1. Republicans last won state office here in 2006.

Early has also faced challenges in his own party. In the 2022 Attorney General race, then-GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy, now House speaker, endorsed Early’s GOP rival in the race, Nathan Hochman, just before taking the stage at the California Republican’s spring convention Parties. The next day, the delegates voted to endorse Hochman, who passed

Unpleasant

the

the

general election, losing to Democratic Atty. General Rob Bonta.