‘ Front and center continues to be the COVID response’

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday made history by appointing fellow Democrat Alex Padilla to the U. S. Senate, making him the f irst Latino to represent California as senator.

Padilla, California’s twoterm secretary of state, will replace Sen. Kamala Harris, who in November became the first woman elected vice president of the United States.

Padilla, 47, has a political career that spans more than two decades and began when he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1999 when he was just 26.

He went on to become the city’s youngest Council president, a state senator and secretary of state.

Padilla, who has been working from his home in the San Fernando Valley throughout most of the pandemic, spoke with The Times by telephone shortly after his appointment was announced.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You will become California’s first Latino U. S. senator. Why do you think it took so long and how do you think you’ll reshape a Senate that for centuries has been dominated by white men?

I know it’s an historic opportunity. Personally, I’m just tremendously honored and humbled and look forward to bringing my story, and my journey, as an important perspective to the deliberations of the United States Senate. I know there’s a lot of bigpicture issues, but the COVID response is front and center. A relief package was done last weekend, but much more is going to be necessary. This pandemic is far from over and there’s still a tremendous amount of pain and suffering out there from a health perspective, an economic perspective, on so many working families. No state has more at stake in getting this right than the state of California.

What will be your top priorities in the U. S. Senate, and how will you be different from Sen. Dianne Feinstein or Sen. Kamala Harris?

I look forward to working with both of them, obviously with Sen. Harris in her soon- to- be- new capacity. But front and center continues to be the COVID response. I’ve seen firsthand the impact of COVID from both the health and economic perspective. It breaks my heart to see the lines, whether it’s at COVID testing sites or at food distribution sites. You know that’s the real human impact that far too many people have endured throughout this year. So we’re gonna continue to keep that as a top priority. At the end of the day, it’s real simple: Just like my parents had to do for me, you work hard, try to provide for your family and try to provide the next generation a better opportunity.

All that has been significantly disrupted because of this pandemic.

It’s likely that the Republicans will hold a majority in the Senate. What do you expect to accomplish if you’re in the minority and will you work with Republicans on legislation and policy even in these partisan times?

Absolutely. I know what I’m going to the Senate to fight for — to continue to fight for the American dream, for working families across California and across the country, increased access to healthcare, to battle climate change, improve educational opportunity and make our economy more inclusive. I’ll work with anybody to help get those things done.

Gov. Gavin Newsom received a lot of pressure to appoint a Black woman to replace Sen. Kamala Harris, who was only the second Black woman ever elected to the U. S. Senate.

What do you say to those who advocated for a Black woman to be appointed? I’m going to be the best senator I can be for all Californians. There’s been increasing pressure for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, one of your political mentors, to step aside to make way for a younger or more progressive senator. What do you think about that?

I respect Sen. Feinstein and her years of service and leadership, from her championing the assault weapons ban to in more recent years holding the CIA accountable for the use of force, and a whole lot of things in between. She’s blazed a significant trail. We may not agree on 100% of the issues, but I look forward to working with her on behalf of all Californians.

You’ll likely face a fierce challenge from both Democrats and Republicans in the 2022 Senate race. How difficult will it be to hold

onto your seat when facing off, potentially, against well- funded challengers?

I think I’ve demonstrated throughout the course of my public service career that if you do a good job, do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons, the politics tends to work out. Nobody’s gonna work harder than I will.

You came back home from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work as an engineer in the 1990s. What would you say to that young man now?

Buckle your seat belt, because you may think you have a plan, but life’s gonna happen. Despite my upbringing, despite watching my parents work so hard to sacrifice, despite an opportunity to study at one of the best universities in the world, [ I came] home to be told California is going downhill and that it’s the fault of people like my parents, families like mine. I knew I had to do something about that.