Alex Padilla

Background

Alex Padilla was born and raised in Pacoima, in the San Fernando Valley. His parents came to Los Angeles from Mexico in the 1960s; his father worked as a short-order cook and his mother cleaned houses. He graduated from San Fernando High School and earned a mechanical engineering degree from MIT. In 1999, at 26, he won a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, and his colleagues chose him as council president in 2001. He was elected to the State Senate in 2006 and served two terms, chairing its energy committee. Voters elected him secretary of state in 2014, the first Latino in that office. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed him to the U.S. Senate seat Kamala Harris left, and he took office in January 2021 as the first Latino to represent California there. He lives in the San Fernando Valley with his wife, Angela, and their three sons.

In office

On November 8, 2022, Padilla won both the rest of the Harris term and a full six-year term over Republican Mark Meuser, with 60.9 and 61.1 percent. In the current Congress he is the ranking Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee and on the Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and border safety, and he serves on the Budget, Environment and Public Works, and Energy and Natural Resources committees.

On June 12, 2025, after he identified himself and tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a Los Angeles news conference, agents removed him from the room and handcuffed him. In September 2025 he backed Proposition 50's redrawing of congressional maps, telling CalMatters that he had supported independent commissions but that these were not normal times. On November 4, 2025, he said he would not run for governor and would stay in the Senate.

Much of his 2026 work has been immigration oversight. On January 20 he and Senator Adam Schiff toured the California City detention center, and he said he would not vote for new enforcement money without added guardrails. On February 18 he, Schiff and Representative Mark DeSaulnier asked Noem not to reopen the former federal women's prison in Dublin as an immigration jail. On October 1 he made an unannounced visit to the immigration holding room at San Francisco International Airport. He found fewer than six people there, said the room had at times been used for longer detention than intended, and questioned whether it had the required amenities. On October 15 he said the Justice Department's lawsuit to set aside more than 20,000 California mail ballots had no legal basis.

On the ballot

Padilla is not on the November 3, 2026 ballot. His Class III seat is next up on November 7, 2028, and his current term runs to January 3, 2029. As a statewide senator he represents all nine Bay Area counties. When he ruled out a 2026 run for governor on November 4, 2025, he said he would stay in the Senate; we found no announcement about whether he will seek re-election in 2028.