Alex Padilla

Alex Padilla (born March 22, 1973, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is the first Latino to represent California in the United States Senate. He was appointed to the position in 2021 after previously serving as California’s secretary of state (2015–21). Padilla, a Democrat, won a full Senate term in 2022.

Early life and activism against Proposition 187

Padilla was born in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Santos Padilla, a line cook, and Guadalupe (Lupe) Padilla, a house cleaner, who had emigrated from Mexico. After graduating from high school in 1990, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1994. He returned to California intent on pursuing an engineering career. But that same year a controversial state ballot initiative, known as Proposition 187, sought to deny social services, nonemergency health services, and public education to undocumented immigrants living in California. Padilla quickly became involved in grassroots efforts to oppose the initiative, thus launching the start of his political career. Voters ultimately approved the measure in the November 1994 general election, and Padilla remained involved in politics, serving (1995–96) as an aide to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and managing campaigns for several other California politicians. Proposition 187 was eventually voided by a federal court in 1999.

City councilman, state legislator, and secretary of state

Padilla ran successfully for the Los Angeles City Council in 1999. Two years later he was elected president of the city council, becoming the youngest person ever to hold that post. During the attacks of September 11, 2001, Mayor James Hahn was out of town and Padilla stepped in as acting mayor to ensure the readiness of Los Angeles during the elevated risk of attack. He subsequently served two terms (2006–14) in the California State Senate, where he wrote legislation aimed at combating global warming and expanding access to higher education. In 2014 Padilla won a competitive race for California secretary of state. In that post he served as the state’s chief election officer and oversaw efforts to increase voter registration and update aging voting systems in the state. Padilla was reelected secretary of state in 2018 by a wide margin.

U.S. Senator

In 2020 California’s junior U.S. senator, Kamala Harris, became Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate. The Biden-Harris ticket defeated Republican Pres. Donald Trump and Vice Pres. Mike Pence in November. Ahead of her inauguration as vice president, Harris formally resigned her Senate seat on January 18, 2021. That same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla to fill the seat for the remaining two years of Harris’s Senate term. Padilla was sworn into office on January 20, 2021.

One week before Padilla entered the Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives had impeached Trump, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, following a speech he gave that encouraged them to march to the Capitol and violently resist the certification of Biden’s victory. The impeachment proceedings moved to the Senate after Trump left office, by which time Padilla had entered the Senate. On February 13, 2021, he voted to convict Trump, calling the case against the former president “abundantly clear” and vowing to work with his Senate colleagues to combat the spread of “dangerous disinformation” regarding U.S. elections. The Senate voted 57–43 to find Trump guilty, but the count was 10 votes short of the two-thirds needed for conviction.

Padilla has been a strong supporter of President Biden’s domestic agenda. He voted in favor of the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan that was the first legislative priority of the Biden administration and a response to an economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Padilla also supported the Biden administration’s efforts to rebuild roads, bridges, railways, and other transportation infrastructure across the country. In November 2022 Padilla decisively won an election for a full term in his Senate seat.