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Harris launches Senate campaign

State Attorney General at a Washington, D.C. conference on domestic violence. (Photo: DC Volunteer Lawyers Project)

A week after she was sworn in as state attorney general for a second term, Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that she intends to run next year for the U.S. Senate seat of Barbara Boxer, who is not seeking reelection.

Harris said on her Web site that “I’m excited to share with you that I’m launching my campaign to represent the people of California in the United States Senate.” Her statement can be seen here.

Harris, 50, the former district attorney of San Francisco said she would be “a fighter for middle class families who are feeling the pinch of stagnant wages and diminishing opportunity.”

Harris’ term as attorney general is not up until 2018, giving her a “free ride” at the U.S. Senate seat; if she loses that race she retains her state post.

Word of Harris’ decision emerged Monday, just hours after Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he did not intend to seek Boxer’s seat in 2016.

Newsom, who made the statement on his Facebook page, said he would “remain firmly in the state of California – and not Washington, D.C. Therefore I will not seek election to the U.S. Senate  in 2016.”

He didn’t say so, but his language about wanting to “remain firmly in California” suggested to many that he intended to run for governor in 2018.

Newsom, the scion of a San Francisco-area political family and the former Mayor of San Francisco, had been viewed as a likely contender for U.S. Senate next year or the governor’s office in 2018 to replace Jerry Brown, who is serving an unprecedented fourth term and is barred by law from seeking reelection.

Newsom’s decision to bow out leaves a wide-open field. Among those seen as potential contenders are former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, former presidential contender Mitt Romney and state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, among others.

Newsom, 47, said he was issued the Facebook statement because “it’s always better to be candid than coy … I know that my head and my heart, my young family’s future, and our unfinished work all remain firmly in the State of California”

Ed’s Note: UPDATES Harris decision with statement on campaign web site.

 

 

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5 responses to “Harris launches Senate campaign”

  1. […] TimesGavin Newsom won't run for Barbara Boxer's US Senate seatSan Francisco ChronicleNewsom: Out of 2016 Senate raceCapitol WeeklyNational Journal -Roll Callall 29 news […]

  2. Jim Reilley says:

    The REAL question now is….who will take Feinstein’s seat when she retires in 2018 now that Newsome is our next Governor and can whoever it is be patient enough to wait out the 2016 race to let the field open in 2018?

  3. Jumbo64 says:

    Wait…Mitt Romney?

  4. Laurence B.Goodhue says:

    Harris’s complicity,officiation in the Criminal Ruse/ Scheme to gift near
    $300,000 of State Tidelands Funds to very select one or two panting
    to increase their investment portfolios …undertaken by her protege..
    former California,Coastal Commission Member;then Long Beach
    Council Member/Chair of LB Public Safety Commission-now
    Sitting Mayor,,,so sworn in as Mayor by his “Aunt” Kamala.

    The data relative to the Criminal Ruse as well as Harris’s complicity is
    now on the desk of the Jim Comey,Director of FBI…which include the
    Long Beach Police Records which exposed the criminal ruse et al.

    Alas,there is nothing like a United States Senate race to bring in the
    needed sunlight which Harris has been stridently attempting to block
    out.

    At the end of the day Harris would be lucky to get a gigg as a
    Kardashian butt double.!!!

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