In a historic event, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been appointed as United States Senator by Governor Gavin Newsom. Secretary Padilla, who has a mechanical engineering degree from MIT, grew up in California at a time when Republican hostility against Latinos was a fever pitch. His appointment as US Senator replaces another historical first for California and the country, the election of Vice President Elect Kamala Harris to the White House as President Elect Joe Biden’s right hand.
Democrats picked up a fire line of representatives as Secretary of State since Donald Trump’s unlikely election in 2016 who were committed to protecting access to the voting booth. States like Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, saw stewards of our election system rise and they have since expanded voting systems that contributed to what experts say is the most secure election in American history.
But few can understand the connection between equality and the voting booth like Padilla. Padilla grew up in Pacoima, CA in an immigrant household where he saw first hand how mobilization among Latinos could help fight back against the racism and xenophobia that had come to dominate the kind of Republican politics that led this country to the election of Donald Trump.
Padilla is the offspring of California’s Proposition 187, a watershed moment for Latino politics, and the first modern shot against undocumented immigrants.
In an interview with NBCNews Latino, Padilla said, “Demographics already were what they were [in 1994],” said Padilla, “but Proposition 187 encouraged people like my parents who had been here for years and years as legal permanent residents to finally begin the naturalization process to become citizens to not only protect themselves and their families but to vote to not be scapegoated again.”
Padilla won two statewide elections against Republicans over the last 7 years. He won in 2014, by a seven point margin, and then again in 2018 by an almost 30 point blowout against the Republican challenger. In a recent Latino Decisions Statewide survey of Latino registered voters, we asked “How much trust and confidence would you have that your mail ballot would be returned and counted in the election?” In total, almost 80 percent of Latinos said they were totally confident or somewhat confident in California’s vote by mail system. At a time when President Trump has tirelessly attacked our election system in a desperate attempt to delegitimize our voting systems, Padilla has been a steadfast fighter for the integrity of our elections.
Padilla’s appointment now makes him the fourth Mexican-American US Senator in the last 20 years, with Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada now in office, and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico elected to US Senate this year. Ken Salazar of Colorado served from 2005 until 2009 until he was appointed Secretary of Interior by President Obama.
