SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to select his second U.S. Senator after the death of trailblazing Democrat Dianne Feinstein Friday.
In December 2020 Newsom appointed Alex Padilla, who was California's Secretary of State, to fill and serve the remainder of Kamala Harris' U.S. Senate term, which ended with the 2022 election. Padilla then won the election for a full term.
The U.S. Constitution's 17th Amendment gives governors the power to appoint replacements.
Newsom said in 2021 that he would nominate a Black woman to fill the seat if Feinstein were to step aside.
Already, Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have launched Senate campaigns to succeed Feinstein.
Lee is Black, and becoming the incumbent could be a decisive advantage in the contest, but it's not known if Newsom would consider Lee, given her candidacy. Porter and Schiff are white.
Feinstein, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, was a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state — including environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control — but was also known as a pragmatic lawmaker who reached out to Republicans and sought middle ground.
Feinstein has had a groundbreaking political career and shattered gender barriers from San Francisco's City Hall to the corridors of Capitol Hill.
She was the first woman to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1970s and the first female mayor of San Francisco. She ascended to that post after the November 1978 assassinations of then-Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk by a former supervisor, Dan White. Feinstein found Milk's body.
In the Senate, she was the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to serve as the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat. She gained a reputation as a pragmatic centrist who left a mark on political battles over issues ranging from reproductive rights to environmental protection.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Padilla was named to fill and serve the remainder of Harris' US Senate term, which ends with the 2022 election. Padilla will be California's first Latino senator.
