- Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will step down from her Senate seat on Monday, two days before a historic inauguration, where she and President-elect Joe Biden will take over the reins of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
- Harris informed California Governor Gavin Newsom of his decision, which paves the way for the appointment of California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to the chair.
- Harris, who won his first Senate race in 2016, will become the first woman, the first black woman and the first Indian-American vice president in history when it opens on Wednesday.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will step down from her Senate seat on Monday, two days before a historic inauguration, where she and President-elect Joe Biden will take over the reins of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The decision was confirmed by Harris aides, according to The Associated Press.
Harris informed California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, of his decision, which paves the way for the appointment of California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla, which the governor appointed in December to occupy the remaining two years of the Harris chair.
Padilla, 47, will be California’s first Latin senator, a historic achievement in a state that is approximately 40% Hispanic.
Padilla’s arrival, along with Harris’s continued role in the Senate as mayor, is part of the calculation for the Democratic majority in the Senate at the 117th Congress. Once senators-elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, fresh out of the second round of the 2021 election, take office, the party will have 50 seats in the upper house and Harris’ tiebreaker vote will be key to moving the legislative agenda forward. of Biden and judicial nominees.
Harris, who won her first Senate race in 2016 to replace Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, will become the first woman, the first black woman and the first Indo-American vice president in history when she takes office on Wednesday.
Read More: How Washington DC’s Total Democratic Control Could Transform the Real Estate Industry
The elected vice president is one of only three black senators currently in the Chamber, along with Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Tim Scott of South Carolina. She is currently the only black woman in the Senate and only the second black woman elected to the upper house – the first being former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, who served from 1993 to 1999.
When Warnock takes office, the number of black senators will remain at three.
During her tenure, Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California’s attorney general, became known for severely questioning Trump administration officials. A conversation with then attorney general Jeff Sessions during a 2017 Judiciary Committee hearing went viral.
She also pursued criminal justice reform measures and worked to improve electoral security across the country.
On Wednesday, when Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a new chapter in his relationship with the Senate will begin.
“This is not goodbye for Vice President-elect Harris, when she resigns from the Senate, she is preparing to take an oath that will allow her to preside over him,” said a Harris aide. “And as a vice president, she will work tirelessly … and in a bipartisan way to really fulfill the legislative agenda of the Biden-Harris government.”