California Democratic Senate leader Kevin de León announced over the weekend that he will challenge Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for Senate in 2018.
De León announced his bid an in email over the weekend to his supporters saying that he is ready to fight against President Donald Trump’s conservative movement, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“I think California needs a senator not just fully resistant to Trump’s presidency, but who understands the issues most Californians face every day,” De León said. “To achieve these goals, expand the California dream, and take the fight to Trump from California to Washington, D.C., I commit to working tirelessly to earn your vote here at home, and once elected, to do my part to work even harder to reunite this nation with a progressive agenda.”
Feinstein, 84, is the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and has no plans of retiring any time soon as her political committee — Feinstein for Senate 2018 — already raised more than $650,000 in just the first few months of 2017.
While leading the fight to make California a sanctuary state, De León claimed in testimony before the Senate’s Public Safety Committee that half of his family would be eligible for deportation.
“Half of my family would be eligible for deportation under the executive order, because they got a false social security card, they got a false identification, they got a false driver’s license prior to us passing AB 60, they got a false green card, and anyone who has family members who are undocumented knows that almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification,” De León said.