Kamala Harris’ Senate successor is hanging out with AOC. Why experts say that’s a smart move

Alex Padilla is a liberal.

That’s become clear during his first three months as a U.S. senator.

The California Democrat has embraced the Green New Deal, appearing with liberal star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently to tout the plan.

He joined liberal congressional leaders Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal to back debt-free, tuition-free college, and touted his support for Sanders’ efforts to pass a $15 minimum wage.

No one should be surprised at any of this, Padilla told The Sacramento Bee. “I’ve been a proud progressive for a long time,” he explains, noting that he first got involved in politics fighting California’s Proposition 187, a 1994 initiative widely viewed as anti-immigrant.

Being identified with the liberal wing is also very good politics. “To me Padilla is doing exactly what he needs to do to show voters what he stands for,” said Katie Merrill, a San Francisco-based Democratic consultant..

A ‘progressive champion’

Padilla, 48, was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Gavin Newsom to replace Kamala Harris, now the vice president.

Padilla came with a reputation as a public official who concentrated on the details of his job. As California’s secretary of state since 2015, his main task was managing elections, hardly a forum for showcasing a political philosophy.

“Padilla has been a progressive champion his entire elected career. You didn’t see it as much when he was secretary of state. That wasn’t his charge,” Merrill said. “Everything he’s doing now is consistent with his elected career as a state senator and as a council member in Los Angeles.”

Andrew Acosta, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist, described the 2021-vintage Padilla another way: “He was sort of limited. Now he can run unchecked.”

Where Padilla, California’s first Latino senator, was most noticed when he entered the Senate was his expertise on immigration. The son of Mexican immigrants, his father was a short-order cook and his mother was a housekeeper.

Padilla was given an unusually high-profile role for a freshman, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee. That instantly made him a major player as Congress and the White House try to craft immigration legislation.

He immediately made clear he’s very much in the Democratic mainstream, which these days leans heavily to the left. According to ProPublica, Padilla has voted with his party 100% of the time so far.

He’s also made some high-profile moves to show he’s in sync with liberals.

Sanders, a Vermont independent and socialist, twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination and is regarded as a leader of the party’s progressive wing.

On March 5, a Padilla press release said “Padilla joins Sanders in fight to raise the minimum wage.” It quoted a Padilla Senate speech where he noted “The sky did not fall when California enacted a $15 minimum wage.”

California has been incrementally increasing the minimum wage since 2017. The state’s $15 wage takes effect in January for employers with 26 or more employees and a year later for those with 25 or fewer employees. President Joe Biden recently set the minimum wage for federal contractors at $15 an hour.

On April 20, Padilla joined Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., at a news conference to praise the Green New Deal.

The plan is a sweeping set of proposals to use clean technology to combat climate change that conservatives have branded as government overreach. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell calls it “radical left-wing ideology.”

On April 22, Padilla teamed with Sanders and Jayapal, the Washington state Democrat who chairs the House Progressive Caucus, to sponsor the “College for All” act.

It would guarantee tuition-free community college for all students, and allow students from families earning under $125,000 a year to attend public colleges and universities tuition-free and debt-free. The bill would impose a small tax or fee on Wall Street stock trades, bonds and derivatives.

“It’s consistent with what my work has been for many many years,” said Padilla of these efforts. He recalled attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering.

“Tuition at MIT was more than my dad’s W2,” he says, so the student debt issue in particular is “personal to me.”

Leading on immigration

Congress has struggled for years to find a consensus that would permit undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

Padilla’s personal and political background give him a stature on the issue few others in the Senate have, and he’s having talks with a number of Republicans about legislation. The Senate has six Hispanic senators, four Democrats and two Republicans.

Padilla’s first Senate bill, which he introduced in February, is the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act. It would provide an expedited pathway to citizenship for more than 5 million essential workers without permanent legal status, such as nurses, emergency medical technicians, farm workers and others.

He’s optimistic that he can find common ground with Republicans on some points, notably making it easier for “Dreamers,” or people who entered the country as undocumented children, to gain citizenship.

The broader issues will be tougher. Though the Senate passed a plan providing a 13-year pathway to citizenship with 68 votes eight years ago, it died in the Republican-led House.

Sixty Senate votes would be needed to advance immigration legislation, and Republicans control 50 seats. Though Padilla has had discussions with some GOP senators, few Republicans have shown much interest in reviving the plan.

Skeptics insist that the White House exert better control over the U.S.-Mexico border first.

“There’s no doubt there are some Republicans who would find common cause with Democrats on a bad immigration bill that embraced amnesty,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told McClatchy.

But, said Cruz, a member of Padilla’s subcommittee, “The radical left right now won’t let them do it because the new position of the left is any border enforcement is unacceptable.” Asked if there was any pathway to citizenship he could accept, Cruz said flatly, “No.”

Padilla will press on. “How many people have praised essential workers in agriculture, transportation, food processing, health care?” he asked. “Appealing to humanity is always in order.”

Taking it slowly

Padilla could benefit from being out of the Washington and Sacramento headlights.

“He hasn’t been in the news too much. He’s being overshadowed to some extent by the vice president and the problems with the governor,” said Matt Rexroad, a Sacramento-based Republican consultant.

Padilla, though, has never been a politician who craved constant attention.

As a state senator from the San Fernando Valley from 2006 to 2015, “He worked on a lot of technical bills. He’s not a talking point kind of guy,” said Steven Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic consultant.

Among his achievements so far: Authoring a measure to make stormwater reuse and groundwater recharge projects eligible for a newly reauthorized Environmental Protection Agency program. Padilla’s office noted that developing sustainable water supplies is extremely important for the state, as it begins its second year of drought conditions.

Padilla speaks about his favorite issues with a controlled passion. Asked if anything has surprised him as a senator, he says “It’s all a different speed.” Since he took office, Biden has proposed $6 trillion in economic, infrastructure and family initiatives.

While Padilla effortlessly offers broad views of where he stands, he’s moving carefully when discussing the details.

Asked about the effort to repeal the limits on the state and local tax deduction, which many Democrats in high-tax states are championing, Padilla is circumspect. “I think it needs to be addressed,” he says, but goes no further.

Siding with the left on ideological issues comes more easily to him, analysts say.

Sanders easily won the state’s Democratic presidential primary in 2020. When Feinstein ran for re-election in 2018, her chief challenger was state Senate leader Kevin de León, who charged that she had lost touch with liberals. De Leon got 45.8% of the vote.

“We like where he’s going,” said Amar Shergill, chair of the state Democratic Party’s progressive caucus, “but there are a lot of tests yet to come.”

Padilla’s gotten the message that progressives dominate the party, he said. Voting liberal is not going to hurt him.

“That’s where the energy in the Democratic Party is now,” Rexroad said. “I don’t think it’s really a risk at all.”