John Nichols, The Nation
The governor signaled that, while he was committed to naming a woman
of color, he didn’t want to give Lee the advantage of appointed
incumbency. This was a new standard, developed by Newsom since his last
appointment of a senator in 2021, when he chose Alex Padilla
to replace newly elected Vice President Kamala Harris. As an appointed
incumbent, Padilla ran for and easily won a full term in 2022. This
time, Newsom said, he wanted to make an “interim appointment”—indicating
an apparent preference for a caretaker senator who would merely finish
out Feinstein’s term and then leave the Senate.
It was an absurd calculus, offering the prospect of a brief rather than ongoing expansion of representation for Black women in the Senate, and Lee called him out for it. The representative said in a statement, “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.”
