Alex Padilla and BIPOC Representation in the Senate
illustration by Avery Zakocs
As Kamala Harris assumes her position as Vice President of the United States this week, Alex Padilla will be filling her shoes in the US Senate. Appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in December, the current Secretary of State will represent California in Congress for the next two years. Padilla will be the state’s first Latino senator, a much-needed for many California residents, but will replace the only Black woman in the US Senate.
Who is Alex Padilla?
Padilla is the son of two Mexican-born immigrants, who settled in a working-class neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Padilla excelled in public schools and paid his own way through MIT, earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Though originally set on becoming an aerospace engineer, Padilla began challenging anti-immigrant policies in the 90’s and found himself on the Los Angeles City Council at the age of 26.
Padilla went on to serve as Los Angeles County President, and subsequently Acting Mayor of Los Angeles during the tragedies of September 11, 2001. In 2006, Padilla was elected to the California State Senate, where he spent two terms pushing legislative reforms. The politician pushed for education reforms, recognizing students that were not “English learners” and ensuring California students a more accessible pipeline from California community colleges to the California State University system. Padilla authored legislation that required health information to be posted at restaurants and cracked down on tobacco use among minors.
Given his engineering experience, Padilla often took notice of scientific and technological legislation. He authored the California Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act, which addressed genetic discrimiation in state-funded areas like housing and healthcare, as well as proposed bills to support funding for an Earthquake Early Warning System.
As of January 2015, Padilla served as California Secretary of State. He heads the office that runs California elections and focuses on the state’s voting rights and regulations.
Why Padilla?
Aside from the fact that Alex Padilla would provide representation for California’s numerous Latino citizens, Governor Newsom had many reasons for his choice. Padilla has been a trusted ally of Newsom throughout his career, introducing him to leaders and projects within the Latino community for years. Additionally, Newsom seemed to be targeting candidates that had served in state-wide positions, as well as held the political standing and funding to retain a Senate seat in future elections. With Xavier Becerra, a previous congressman and California Attorney General, appointed to the US Department of Health and Human Services by President-elect Joe Biden, Padilla seemed like the best fit.
The Issue of Representation
This upcoming week, Padilla will become the first Latino senator of California. This is huge. Almost 40% of the state’s citizens are of Latino or Hispanic descent. But, for as long as the Senate has elected Californians, their voices have had little representation. For Latino organizations like The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Latino Victory Fund, this is a massive win in a long, disappointing battle for representation.
However, there are now no Black women in the US Senate. Not one.
In replacing Kamala Harris with a non-Black man, the perspectives of African American women have been removed from the picture. Before Newsom’s appointment of Padilla, the Black community (among many Californians) pushed for the appointment of another Black, female voice to replace Harris’s. Representatives of California such as Karen Bass or Barbara Lee were also considered for the position, but ultimately not appointed by Newsom. This came as a shock and injustice for the Black community of California.
Representative Karen Bass serves in the Congressional Black Caucus and has spent her six congressional terms fighting for police reform. She is additionally vocal about social and environmental justice and has been active in community efforts in Los Angeles since the 80’s. Representative Barbara Lee is a vice-chair and founding member of the LGBT Caucus and served in the state assembly for years. She has been advocating for Black women in Congress for the past twenty-two years and was the only member of Congress to vote against the Iraq War after the events of September 11, 2001. Though the two contenders have not held state-wide positions, they both have experience working in Washington D.C. that Padilla does not have.
Many California citizens argued that both women would have been phenomenal picks for the US Senate. Even other politicians, such as Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, condemned Governor Newsom’s choice and stressed the necessity of Black female voices in the Senate. Both women could have provided much-needed representation for Black women in the US Senate.
