Who is Democrat Alex Padilla? Meet California’s first Latino U.S. Senator
People from Alex Padilla’s childhood neighborhood did not become political leaders. They did not become lawyers or engineers or make Oscar-winning movies.
At least that’s what they thought, said Xavier A. Velazquez, who became a fast friend of Padilla in fifth grade.
As a child growing up in blue-collar Pacoima, Los Angeles, Velazquez said, “I didn’t really think much was possible.”
Today, Velazquez is an engineer who creates visual effects for Sony Pictures Imageworks, including for the acclaimed “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” And his fifth-grade friend Tuesday was sworn in, after having been appointed to fill the seat, as the first Latino elected to the U.S. Senate from California.
The boy Velazquez met back then is much like 49-year-old Alex Padilla: friendly, intuitive, a problem-solver — and “born to be” in politics.
Velazquez remembers on his first day at a new school, as part of a gifted program that brought them there, Padilla waved him over to his table. Their older sisters knew each other too, as they were in the same grade at the same junior high school.
“It was hard not to notice that we were the only Latinos in the classroom,” Velazquez said.
At this school, plenty of students had lawyers and engineers for parents. Velazquez, a son of Mexican immigrants, was the first in his family to graduate from college. Padilla’s parents also came from Mexico, met in Los Angeles, married and had three children: Padilla, his older sister and younger brother. His father was a short-order cook; his mother, a housekeeper.
“We were like each other’s role models,” Velazquez said.
They did what kids do. Rode skateboards and bikes. Played hopscotch and dodgeball. Break-dance battles were big then (they were mostly just popping-and-locking, Velazquez noted). One time, Velazquez and Padilla tied their shoelaces together at recess and couldn’t undo them, so they spent the whole day like that until they were forced to fess up.
“He’s incredibly, incredibly funny,” Velazquez said, “and witty, sharp and fast.”
Padilla enters politics
Caught in a Senate hallway not long after his election victory, Padilla took a moment to reflect on making history.
“It is almost overwhelming,” he said. “I continue to be thankful for the people of California placing their trust in me.”
Latinos make up the largest ethic group in California. The Legislature saw historic gains in Latino members, too.
Padilla before politics was both a team player and hard worker, inspired by his parents, he said.
Throughout his upbringing, Padilla recalled his father would say to him in Spanish, “son, when you grow up, I want you to work with your mind and not with your back.” They valued manual labor, he said, but they knew pursuing higher education would better himself and others.
The senator played high school baseball — something his colleagues in Congress hope he puts to use as a member of their annual game — and went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a degree in engineering in 1994. Padilla came home to Southern California and graduated from the Coro Fellows Program, which studies public affairs, in 1995.
Taking his father’s advice, his engineering degree has been put to good use. It informs his legislative method: identify the problem, configure the solution, apply it. Every problem has a solution; work to fix it before complaining about it. In the previously 50-50 Senate, and now in a divided Congress, finding a path to enacting bills requires effort without much time for complaining.
One of the most fraught legislative battles that Padilla has taken on is immigration reform, a long-stalled effort that has been used as a political football over time.
“Senator Padilla’s election as the first Latino U.S. senator from California can ensure the voices of all California families have an opportunity to be heard in the U.S. Senate,” said Pablo Rodriguez, the founding executive director of Communities for a New California Education Fund. “This is in stark contrast to Governor Pete Wilson, who just 28 years ago viewed Latinos as scapegoats to be used to score political points with the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 on his way to reelection in 1994.”
Padilla was pulled into politics for that very personal fight against that California proposition, which aimed to prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining non-emergency health care, public education and other services. (Prop. 187 faced a legal challenge and was declared unconstitutional within four days of its passing.)
“The immigration issue has been a defining issue for Alex’s entire career; as somebody who came up really in the post-187 era, it’s an inescapable issue,” said Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant and expert in Latino voting trends. “He’s also one one of the few Latinos in the Senate, one of even fewer Mexican Americans in the Senate, the only Mexican American from California, where the immigration issue is just dominant. So the issue would find him if he didn’t find it.”
He became an aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, now his colleague with whom he partners on wildfire legislation. Padilla was a campaign manager to three successful members of the Legislature. Velazquez recalls Padilla saying, “I’ve been helping those people get elected. I’m going to do it now.”
At age 26, Padilla became a member of the Los Angeles City Council. Two years later, he became the youngest and first Latino city council president. While then-Mayor James Hahn had to travel out of the city for a couple of days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Padilla was acting mayor of Los Angeles.
Having a Southern Californian in the U.S. Senate is something “we haven’t had for decades,” said Thomas A. Saenz, the president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF. “More importantly, someone having a history in city government in Southern California.”
A historic election
Madrid, who has known Padilla since he served on the city council, said Padilla’s desire to become a senator was the “worst kept secret in town.”
“Everybody knew it,” he said in a December interview. “Everybody knew that he would get there someday.”
First, he served in the state senate from 2006 to 2014. He became California’s first Latino secretary of state, charged with overseeing elections, in 2015. He became California’s first Latino U.S. senator in 2021 when Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped him to finish now-Vice President Kamala Harris’ unexpired term.
Padilla was expected to handily win election for a six-year term (and did) in November. The expectation that he would win hid some of the overt enthusiasm for his historic election.
“There was an underlying excitement about his presence,” Saenz said in a December interview. “I think the sort of lack of excitement around the election comes from the fact that in California, it’s a foregone conclusion that the Democrat is going to get elected.”
Padilla’s Republican opponent, constitutional attorney Mark Meuser, was a familiar foe. He had challenged Padilla for secretary of state in 2018.
Rather, Padilla focused on campaigning for other Democrats in California and beyond, including Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Michael Bennet of Colorado, saying in an October interview that he would want his six-year term “to be in a Democratic majority so that we can advance our policy agenda.”
Madrid called Padilla “the answer to the long-term problems that the Democratic Party faces.”
He explained that the Democrats have engaged in a “fool’s errand” of nationally targeting white, non-college educated voters. “It hasn’t worked in the last three election cycles.”
He noted that the rightward shift of Latino voters had reached California this year.
“(Democrats’) area for growth is with Latino blue-collar workers,” he said. “The best positioned person nationally that embodies and can carry that message is Senator Alex Padilla.”
Some think Padilla could make White House history.
“He meets the demographics of the future,” Madrid said. “To not consider him as a presidential contender in the future is obviously silly. He just will be on the shortlist, whether he wants that or not.”
“If Gavin Newsom wasn’t already positioning himself for a potential future run for president,” Rodriguez told The Bee in December, “I’d say I wouldn’t be surprised to hear rumblings of Senator Padilla as a presidential candidate.”
Padilla is not someone who “headline grabs,” as Madrid called it; Madrid said he’s someone who does the work, and has not expressed a desire to run for president.
Padilla has not indicated an interest in running for president and said he was focused on his work in the Senate.
Judiciary Committee
Currently, Padilla sits on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. Upon arrival, Padilla became chair of a Senate subcommittee on immigration, an unusual amount of power for someone just stepping into the Senate.
Sen. Cory Booker, who sits next to Padilla on the judiciary committee, said he was “continuously awed” by Padilla’s commitment to ensuring “all people, regardless of their race, immigration status, or gender identity” could pursue their dreams and assert their rights. Democrats Padilla, Booker of New Jersey and Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, were the only people of color on the 22-person committee.
Padilla has tugged heartstrings there, a quality often overlooked when describing methodical thinkers. During now-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Padilla brought Jackson to tears while sharing that some teachers discouraged him from applying to his alma mater because they did not want him to “be disappointed.”
The first Latino to represent California in the Senate asked Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest bench, to offer advice to children who have faced similar obstacles. She said to “persevere.”
“People of color, especially those who have the audacity to be the first, often have to work twice as hard to get half the respect,” Padilla told Jackson.
Saenz of MALDEF has one critique of Padilla for his judiciary role: Get more Latinos on the federal bench in California. “Despite his central role, vetting and recommending candidates to the district court, we’ve not seen substantial changes. It’s something that he believes in, but I certainly think he needs to do more to address that.”
Still, President Joe Biden, who officially appoints people to the federal bench, has far outdone his predecessors in nominating women and racially diverse candidates, per the American Bar Association, while Padilla has been there.
Padilla’s legislation
Padilla has reached across the aisle on immigration reform and advanced wildfire legislation that was signed into law, among other measures.
“I wish we had more progress to show for immigration reform,” he said in an interview this fall. “No state has more of a stake in that than California so the fight will continue until we make progress.”
He wants to spend more time on climate investments, mental health initiatives, immigration reform and voting rights during his tenure, he said in an interview this fall.
He wishes the Senate would eliminate the filibuster rule, which effectively requires the chamber to secure a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation. Without the filibuster rule, Padilla would want to codify federal rights for abortion access and more easily advance immigration and criminal justice reform.
“We’ve tried to restore federal voting rights,” Padilla said, “and on immigration, voting rights and a handful of other things, it’s our Republican colleagues that continue to stand in the way.”
Padilla said it was “beyond disappointing” that his GOP counterparts in the split Senate have continued to block legislation. Still, Saenz and others said Padilla’s efforts have been consequential.
“Particularly for a junior senator,” Saenz said, “he’s been situating himself as a leader in advocating for some form of relief to millions of undocumented immigrants who have continued to contribute to our economy and our society.”
Praise comes from above, too. “You’re doing one hell of a job as a freshman senator,” Biden said of Padilla during an October trip to Los Angeles. “I mean that sincerely. And it’s noticed by everyone.”
Padilla, a father of three, still aims to come home every weekend despite his busy schedule. “Sometimes a little bit later than expected or hoped for,” he said in October.
His eldest son, Roman, introduced him to a room of supporters in the Capitol’s historic Kennedy Caucus Room after he was officially sworn in. The senator held his wife’s hand as he addressed the crowd, which included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Padilla’s father.
And of course Velazquez was there. Their children are around the same age and play together, and they live just a few miles apart in Southern California. They get together when they can, though not normally at the U.S. Capitol.
“He has stood the test of time,” Velazquez said. “Maybe say you have your doubts about him. You just wait.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Who is Democrat Alex Padilla? Meet California’s first Latino U.S. Senator."