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https://alex-padilla.com

Senate Appointment:

In December 2020, Alex Padilla was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to finish Kamala Harris' term set to expire in 2023 (Hubler 2020). There were many controversies over Padilla's appointment as many felt that Governor Newsom should have chosen a Black woman to fill Kamala Harris's spot because women are demographically underrepresented in Congress and there are only three African Americans in  the Senate who are all males: Democrat Cory Booker, Democrat Raphael Warnock, and Republican Tim Scott (The Associated Press 2020). However, those who were originally opposed with Padilla's appointment ended up supporting Alex Padilla as he would be the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate. 



https://www.facebook.com/alexpadilla4ca/videos/alex-padilla-for-senate/1109814026206129/


Elections:
Alex Padilla announced his reelection campaign for U.S. Senate after a few short months into office. Since he was originally appointed by the governor, this will be Padilla's first U.S. Senate campaign.  Alex Padilla is using his connection with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein to help his campaign. Alex Padilla is using the campaign slogan "Defending the Dream," which speaks to his platform of increasing pathways to citizenship, expanding voter rights, working on the Green New Deal, raising the minimum wage, improving the COVID response, and cancelling student debt (Facebook). Padilla is trying to appeal to the young progressives and to the Latino population. However, Padilla follows the rhetoric of reperesenting California for all California's so he focuses on issues the state is interested in. Furthermore, Padilla frequently highlights his backstory of his working immigrant parents to attending college and seeking various governmental offices. Padilla shows his constituents how the "American Dream" is possible. 

In California's primary system is based on the two-primary system, where the two to candidates vote to the general election regardless of their political party. Furthermore, this system allows voter-nominated offices and the candidates identify with their party preference rather than their party affiliation (BallotPedia). Alex Padilla is a facing 32 challengers in the Primary Elections on June 7th, 2022 (sos.ca.gov). Padilla's main Democratic opponent would have been U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, however he announced his support for Padilla instead (Wikipedia). Additionally, because California is strongly a blue state, Padilla is unlikely to face any Republican challengers. The outlook for the General Election for the Senate seat is California will safely remain Democrat (Cook Political). 


An intersesting twist on California's ballot is that Alex Padilla's name will be on the ballot twice, once to fill out the last few months of Kamala Harris' term and then is running for a six year term. The reason for this is because the government can appoint a senator to fill the vacancy until a special election can be held (senate.gov). The Assembly Bill 1495 allows the the governor to call two elections to fill the vacant Senate seat that should coincide with general and primary elections. If this does not occur before the leftover term expires, a special election is warranted (Myers 2021). Governor Newsom should have immediately called an election so the people would choose their senator, but instead since he waited too long so "side-by-side races, on both the statewide primary and general election ballots," must occur for the the vacant U.S. Senator spot(Myers 2021). 

https://twitter.com/alexpadilla4ca/status/1346603663721168897


Campaign Financing and Endorsements:
According to Open Secrets, Padilla has raised $8,043,262 in campaign funding and has been actively seeking endorsements. Out of all the primary election candidates Padilla has raised the most money and has obtained the most endorsements, in part due to the imcumbency advantage. Most notably Alex Padilla received an endorsement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representatives Adam Schiff and Katie Porter (Marinucci et. al 2021). He is also supported by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Marinucci et. al 2021). More endorsements can be seen here.

Resources:
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Alex-Padilla-Shirley-Weber-2022-Senate-election-15825427.php
https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/primary-elections-california
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_Senate_elections_in_California
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/alex-padilla-kamala-california-senate.html
https://alex-padilla.com/the-washington-post-alex-padilla-is-coming-in-hot/
https://www.cookpolitical.com
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2021/04/20/padilla-launches-2022-reelection-bid-pelosi-defends-waters-remarks-on-chauvin-trial-california-giving-up-on-climate-ambitions-gop-leaders-want-border-meeting-with-harris-492526
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/04/can-alex-padilla-help-win-back-latinos-democrats/618698/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-27/californians-will-vote-four-times-in-2022-for-the-same-us-senate-seat
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9081659/Californias-1st-Latino-US-senator-brings-cheers-anger.html
http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary?cycle=2022&id=CAS1
https://ballotpedia.org/Primary_elections_in_California
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_election_in_California,_2022
https://www.senate.gov/senators/AppointedSenators.htm
https://www.facebook.com/alexpadilla4ca/videos/alex-padilla-for-senate/1109814026206129/
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_elections,_2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/alex-padilla-kamala-california-senate.html
https://www.senate.gov/senators/117thCongress/padilla-alex.htm




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