California gets Latino US senator, some Black leaders angry By MICHAEL R. BLOODDecember 23, 2020 GMT LOS ANGELES (AP) — California is getting its first Latino U.S. senator. For Gov. Gavin Newsom, it’s a political gamble. The Democratic governor Tuesday named Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. When Padilla goes to Washington, the former state legislator will become California’s first Latino senator since the state’s founding 170 years ago. In picking a personal friend and fellow Democrat, Newsom had his eye on history and pragmatism — he turned to someone he could trust with a year of uncertainty looming, including a possible recall election targeting the governor while the pandemic rages unabated.