California State Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) announced on Sunday that he will challenge incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in the 2018 midterm election.
De León, 50, became the first Latino leader of the State Senate in more than a century in 2014. Facing term limits in 2018, he was widely expected to seek higher office. And he has spent the last several months building his profile by attacking President Donald Trump.
Recently, for example, De León claimed that the Trump administration’s immigration policies were based on “principles of white supremacy.” He sponsored the “sanctuary state” bill, SB 54, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month, and which will restrict the cooperation of state and local law enforcement officials with federal immigration authorities.
Earlier this year, De León told fellow legislators that “half my family” was in the country illegally, and he defended the practice of identity theft as the only way for illegal aliens to survive.
He also retained former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as counsel to the State Senate in its efforts to “resist” the Trump administration (even though California’s own Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, had essentially the same task).
De León made his announcement just six days after Sen. Feinstein announced her plans to run for re-election in 2018, and five days after Silicon Valley’s Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) called for a primary challenge against Feinstein from the leftist, “progressive” wing of the party.
Feinstein, who would be 85 years old at the start of her sixth term in office, has the support of her party’s establishment in the state, including Sen. Kamala Harris — — and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is considered a potential presidential candidate for the Democrats in 2020.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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