California Gov. Gavin Newsom received some backlash on Tuesday for not picking a Black woman to fill the remainder of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s Senate …
California Gov. Gavin Newsom received some backlash on Tuesday for not picking a Black woman to fill the remainder of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s Senate term. The Democratic governor instead selected Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who is a Latino, to be the state’s next U.S. senator – a first in California’s history. Padilla’s appointment gives a new level of representation to Latinos, who make up the state’s single largest demographic group at nearly 40% of the population. But Newsom’s choice of Padilla also means there will be no Black women in the 100-member Senate. Harris, who is Black and Indian, was the only Black woman in the Senate. Matt Stoller, of the American Economic Liberties Project, tweeted that Newsom “should have picked” Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., “because she’s great and is always full of ideological integrity.
