Alejandro Padilla ( ; born March 22, 1973) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from California since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Padilla served more than seven years on the Los Angeles City Council, representing the 7th district. First elected in 1999, he was the president of the Los Angeles City Council from 2001 to 2006. He then served in the California State Senate for the 20th district from 2006 to 2014. After that, he served as the 30th secretary of state of California from 2015 to 2021. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla to the United States Senate after then-Senator Kamala Harris was elected Vice President of the United States; Harris, as the newly elected vice president and president of the Senate, swore Padilla in on January 20, 2021. In dual November 2022 elections, Padilla won a special election to complete his term (California law limits how long appointed U.S. senators may serve) as well as election to a full term in the Senate, besting Republican nominee Mark Meuser. Early life and education Padilla is one of three children of Santos and Lupe Padilla, both of whom immigrated from Mexico, specifically Jalisco and Chihuahua, before meeting and marrying in Los Angeles, where he was born. He grew up in Pacoima, Los Angeles, and graduated from San Fernando High School in the northeast San Fernando Valley. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1994. He graduated from the Coro Fellows Southern California Program in 1995. Early career Los Angeles After graduation, Padilla moved back to Pacoima and briefly worked as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft, where he wrote software for satellite systems. Padilla is a former member of the governing board of MIT and president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), which has a membership of more than 6,000 Latino U.S. officials. He has chaired the Los Angeles Leadership Council for the American Diabetes Association since 2005. Padilla began in politics as a member of the Democratic Party in 1995, in substantial part in response to California Proposition 187, which excluded illegal immigrants from all non-emergency public services, including public education, but which he felt was motivated by a broader nativism that demonized legal and illegal immigrants alike. His first professional role was as a personal assistant to Senator Dianne Feinstein. He