AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli; Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Earlier in September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was asked about how he'd approach a Senate vacancy if veteran lawmaker Dianne Feinstein's seat opened up before she was set to step down in January 2025.
Newsom, who, like Feinstein, was a former San Francisco mayor, pointed to his previous vow to appoint a Black woman to the Senate while emphasizing that he'd only appoint a caretaker who wouldn't run for a full term. At the time, he said that tapping a candidate now in the Senate race could unfairly "tip the balance" of the contest.
But with the Thursday death of Feinstein, a political institution in the Golden State for decades, Newsom will now have to make a choice, and many progressives are pushing him to appoint Rep. Barbara Lee — a longtime Oakland lawmaker and liberal stalwart who's already in the Senate contest.
However, well-known Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter are also in the race, complicating matters for the governor as he now risks alienating swaths of his party's electorate ahead of what is a probable 2028 Democratic presidential candidacy.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Bay Area lawmaker who in March endorsed Lee's Senate bid, took to X on Friday to make the case for Lee, noting that Newsom appointed now-Sen. Alex Padilla to the upper chamber without a caretaker stipulation. (The governor appointed Padilla to the Senate to succeed now-Vice President Kamala Harris.)
"When Newsom appointed Padilla for VP seat he didn't appoint a caretaker," Khanna wrote. "It would be a severe blow to African Americans & progressives for him to appoint one now for political gain. @BarbaraLeeForCA is the most qualified candidate to meet Newsom's pledge."
Higher Heights for America PAC, a political action committee focused on electing progressive Black women to statewide and federal positions, on Friday called on Newsom to tap Lee to the Feinstein seat.
"We don't see this as someone who would be babysitting a Senate seat, but we want the person who would be most effective at doing the job," Higher Heights vice president of communications Aprill Turner told The Washington Post. "We think that is Barbara Lee."
Turner implored Newsom to rethink his pledge to appoint an interim senator and instead capitalize on Lee's years of federal legislative experience.
"She would be most prepared to step in and carry forth the work Senator Feinstein has worked on for so many decades," she told the newspaper.
And Anish Mohanty, the communications director at Gen-Z for Change, told The Post that Newsom tapping an interim senator would seemingly feel "disingenuous." The nonprofit advocacy organization, which utilizes social media to engage young voters with politics, threw its support behind Lee in August.
Lee said earlier in September that she was "troubled" by Newsom's thinking on what was then a hypothetical Senate appointment.
"The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election," she said at the time.
Newsom on Friday didn't discuss his thinking regarding a Feinstein successor, with his office stating that they sought to instead highlight Feinstein's life as a "trailblazing senator" and the late senator's relationship with the governor as a "dear friend, lifelong mentor, and a role model."
