Alex Padilla

Padilla is one of three children of Santos and Lupe Padilla, both of whom emigrated from Mexico before meeting and marrying in Los Angeles.[1]

Padilla grew up in the community of Pacoima in Los Angeles and is a graduate of San Fernando High School in the northeast San Fernando Valley.[2] He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.[3] After graduation, he moved back to Pacoima and briefly worked as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft, where he wrote software for satellite systems.[4][5][6]

Padilla is a former member of the governing board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the President of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) which has a membership of more than 6,000 Latino officials in the United States. He has served as president of the League of California Cities and was its youngest-ever president and the first Latino to lead the league. He serves as chair of the Los Angeles Leadership Council for the American Diabetes Association. Padilla had been a staff member to United States Senator Dianne Feinstein and California State Assembly member Tony Cardenas.

On July 1, 1999, at the age of 26, Padilla was sworn in as a member of the Los Angeles City Council. Two years later his council colleagues elected him council president. Padilla was the first Latino and the youngest person elected president of the Los Angeles City Council.

Padilla was elected to the State Senate in 2006 and re-elected in 2010, with nearly 70% of the vote. He served as a member of the Appropriations Committee, Business and Professions and Economic Development Committee, Governmental Organization Committee, Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, and chaired the Select Committee on Science, Innovation and Public Policy. He left office on November 30, 2014, after two terms in the body.

Padilla's first SOS photo

California places a two-term limit on its constitutional officers, and incumbent Debra Bowen, a fellow Democrat, was unable to run for reelection to the position of Secretary of State, the state's top elections official. On April 11, 2013,[7] Alex Padilla, then a term limited State Senator, announced his intention to run for the position. He was expected to face an intraparty battle with fellow Democrat Leland Yee, but Yee's arrest caused him to abandon the race.[8] Padilla won the election in November against Republican Pete Peterson, who was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times,[9] with 53.6% of the vote.[10] On November 6, 2018, Padilla was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Mark Meuser.[11]

• Secretary of State website
• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN