California Attorney General Kamala Harris will run for Barbara Boxer’s senate seat in 2016.
Harris, a Democrat, announced her campaign on Tuesday in an email to supporters, from whom she hopes to immediately begin soliciting campaign funds.
“I’m asking you to help me build a grassroots campaign that reaches every community of California,” the message asking for $2,600 campaign contributions read. “I want to be a voice for Californians on these issues and others that impact our state in the U.S. Senate.”
Among her early promises are fighting for middle class families facing “stagnant wages and diminishing opportunity,” fighting for the state’s immigrant communities and seniors, as well as pushing for “world-class education,” while fighting to lower “skyrocketing tuition” and prevent predatory lending.
Before becoming the state’s attorney general in 2011, Harris served as the San Francisco District Attorney and Alameda County prosecutor.
In 2013, Harris was embroiled in a momentary scandal brought on not by her, but by President Obama.
“You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said at a San Francisco fundraiser. “She also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.”
The comments sparked a firestorm on TV news and in digital outlets, with most pundits panning the president for commenting on a female leader’s looks where men don’t get the same attribution.
Boxer, a longtime friend to Hollywood currently serving her fourth term, announced that she would not seek reelection in 2016 earlier this month during an interview with her grandson, Zach.
“I am never going to retire — the work is too important — but I will not be running for the Senate in 2016,” she said. “I’m going to continue working on the issues that I love … but you know what, I want to come home, I want to come home to the state that I love so much, California.”