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Alex Padilla

U.S. Senate · CA · Democrats · since 2023

also

Candidate for U.S. Senate · CA

Target Alejandro

Biography

Overview

Alex Padilla is a Democratic U.S. Senator from California serving since 2021. An engineer by training (MIT degree), he previously served as California's Secretary of State (2015-2021), California State Senator (2006-2014), and Los Angeles City Councilmember (1999-2006). He was appointed to fill Kamala Harris's seat when she became Vice President, and was elected to a full term in 2022. Padilla is California's first Hispanic Senator and the first male U.S. Senator from California since 1993.

Career

Key legislative achievements and positions include: sponsored the bill that became Proposition 67 (California plastic bag ban, 2016); authored 2008 legislation requiring calorie information disclosure on restaurant menus; championed multiple bills protecting California public lands including San Gabriel Mountains and Carrizo Plain; introduced legislation on coastal adaptation to sea level rise and extreme weather; introduced the Fix Our Forests Act (2025) for wildfire risk reduction; led Senate opposition to Department of Homeland Security funding bill in January 2026 following immigration enforcement operations; introduced legislation to authorize a binding referendum on Puerto Rico's political status (2023); championed voting access expansion efforts.

Prior political experience

Padilla was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Gavin Newsom in December 2020 to fill the seat vacated when Kamala Harris became Vice President. He was sworn in on January 20, 2021. He appeared on two ballots in November 2022: one for a special election to fill the remainder of Harris's term, and another for a full six-year Senate term. He won both elections in 2022 and became California's senior senator on September 29, 2023, upon the death of Dianne Feinstein.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal
Conservative
119th Congress-0.438

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1
+1
-0.249
Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 648 scored votes

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Officeholding history

TermSeatTerm datesTerminationPredecessorSuccessor
3rdU.S. Senate CA Class 32023–presentIn progressAlex Padilla—
2ndU.S. Senate CA Class 32022–2023Term endedAlex PadillaAlex Padilla
1stU.S. Senate CA Class 32021–2022Term ended—Alex Padilla

Committee assignments

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term10

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

YearSeatResultVote shareField
——Pending——