LOS ANGELES (AP) – California Attorney General Kamala Harris plans to become the first prominent Democrat to enter what’s expected to be a full field in the 2016 race to replace Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate.
Harris, the first woman and the first minority to serve as California’s top prosecutor, planned to announce the move Tuesday morning, according to an adviser not authorized to discuss her plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Harris, 50, a former two-term San Francisco district attorney, is a personal friend of President Barack Obama and attracted national attention when she helped negotiate a settlement with major mortgage lenders and secured extra funding for California. She has been widely viewed as an eventual candidate for governor or U.S. senator.
The disclosure of her plans came just a few hours after a potential rival, California Lt. Governor and former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, said he would not run for the open seat created by Boxer’s retirement next year.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Tom Steyer, a retired San Francisco hedge fund billionaire who sought to make climate change an issue in the midterm elections, are also considering bids for the seat, which Boxer has held for over two decades. Democrats are well positioned to retain the seat in a state where the party controls every statewide office and both chambers in the Legislature.