WASHINGTON — President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris are preparing for their transition into the White House. Meanwhile, in California, many eyes are shifting over to see who might take over Harris’ Senate seat.

What You Need To Know

  • Following the presidential race, focus in California is shifting to see who might take over Harris’ Senate seat

  • USC Professor Christian Grose said it will be hard for Newsom to choose someone to fill Harris’ role

  • Grose said while pressure grows on Newsom to choose a 'historic first," a poll indicates 52% of people don’t care about that

  • There’s also a scenario, Grose said, that could see Gov. Newsom appoint himself.

 

That decision falls on Gov. Gavin Newsom who could make the announcement any day. Analysis from a survey by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy dug into the demographics of the person California voters said they want as their new senator.

USC Professor Christian Grose said it will be hard for Newsom to choose someone to fill Harris’ role as Harris serves as the only Black woman in the Senate.

“That’s a pretty big decision for Newsom,” Grose said.

Grose is the Academic Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute and helped lead a survey of over a thousand California voters, taken right before Election Day. The results and analysis were released post-election.

Grose said while pressure grows on Newsom to choose a "historic first," the poll outcome showed 52% of people didn’t care about that title. Though altogether, 31% did want Newsom to pick the state’s first Latino Senator and 24% wanted the state’s first LGBT Senator.

“We also asked about Dianne Feinstein and ‘Do you want a Senator close to Diane Feinstein or do you want a Senator who is distinct from Dianne Feinstein?’,” Grose said. “And about three-quarters of Californians said they wanted someone different who can charter a new path from Dianne Feinstein.”

Grose said there could be regional components Californians are thinking about as well; since Harris and Feinstein are both from Northern California, Grose said voters may want someone from Southern California.

As for specific names, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute survey included seven contenders: Representatives Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna, and Karen Bass. As well as, the Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Mayors Robert Garcia and Libby Shaaf, and State Senator Toni Atkins.

Head-to-head polls showed Barbara Lee was favored at 11 percent while everyone else fell into single digits. When the survey included descriptions and asked if voters would simply support or not, Garcia and Bass came up as the top two candidates.

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“We only have two U.S. Senators,” Grose said. “We have a huge number of people.”

Grose admitted there are other top contenders like Representatives Adam Schiff and Katie Porter, who didn’t make it into the survey. He said it’s simply because it was impossible to ask about every possible contender with concerns that survey takers would not finish the survey.

There’s also a scenario, Grose said, that could see Newsom appoint himself, since Governors can only serve two four-year terms, every 12 years, and the Senate role is potentially lifelong.