Younger, more liberal, more weighted to the south: California’s political demography is shifting, particularly as two of its political lions move off the stage. For generations, the Bay Area has punched above its weight in terms of influence, and California’s political position has grown up – and old – with it.

That’s changing. Just two years ago, all three plum California offices – the governorship and both Senate seats – were held by Bay Area Democrats (Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris). The governorship still remains in Bay Area hands, but Senator Alex Padilla, a veteran of Los Angeles politics, holds the Harris seat, and the race to replace Feinstein, who announced last month that she will not seek a seventh term, includes two formidable Southern California candidates.

The Senate race, in turn, has touched off jockeying to replace those who would replace Feinstein. In almost every instance, the congressional seats would be filled by new officeholders who are younger, more liberal or more oriented toward Southern California – sometimes in combination. Gov. Gavin Newsom took over in 2019, maintaining San Francisco’s hold on the governor’s office, though replacing the iconoclastic Brown with a younger, more staunchly and predictably liberal Democrat. With Feinstein preparing to wind down her historic career, the trend is set to continue.

Congressman Adam Schiff, the best-funded and best-known of Feinstein’s would-be successors, would shift power south. He was a federal prosecutor in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office, and his congressional district cuts across Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena. Some of the same would be true for Congresswoman Katie Porter, a more junior member of Congress who won her Orange County seat in 2018, part of a wave of Democratic victories born out of revulsion for then-President Donald Trump. Porter, known for her tough, populist questioning of congressional witnesses, would represent a more liberal senator than Feinstein, as well as a more southern one. Both Schiff, 62, and Porter, 49, are downright youthful compared to Feinstein, who will be over 90 when she leaves office.

The third major contender for the Feinstein seat is Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland but grew up in the San Fernando Valley. At 76, she’s hardly a youngster, though notably younger than Feinstein, and she is a standout liberal. To run for the Senate, those congressional members are giving up their House seats and, again, the likelihood is that they will be followed by officials as liberal as they are, and often younger (geography is less relevant for House seats, since they are geographically more compact).

In Schiff’s case, for instance, a large field of candidates has emerged – he was first elected to the seat in 2001, so this is the first opportunity in more than 20 years to win it without getting by Schiff. They include moderate Democrat State Sen. Anthony Portantino and more progressive candidates such as Nick Melvoin, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board; former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, who is endorsed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass; and Assemblywoman Laura Friedman.

Lee is among Congress’ most liberal members. She was famously the only member of Congress to oppose the authorization to use military force after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, so it will be hard to find a successor to her left. But her Oakland congressional district is not about to elect a conservative or even a moderate. Going forward, the seat will almost certainly be held by a liberal who is younger than Lee.

Only in Porter’s case is a shift to the right a distinct possibility, and even there it is a longshot. Porter was the first Democrat ever to win her Orange County seat, and she has had to fight to keep it even as redistricting moved her from the 45th district to the 47th. In 2020, she beat Republican Scott Baugh by about 9,000 votes.

Baugh has announced plans to run again now that Porter is eyeing the Senate, though he will face stiff competition from state Sen. Dave Min, a progressive who has Porter’s endorsement and the advantage of running in a presidential year, which tends to boost turnout and help Democrats. All of that gives the progressive and southern wings of the California Democratic Party plenty to cheer about. Still, there is lament along with the excitement – nostalgia for a politics that sublimated partisanship beneath progress. That’s an idea that once defined California.

Its master practitioner was Earl Warren, a progressive Republican who had roots in both south and north – born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, drawn first to politics in Alameda County – and who commanded California politics in the 1940s and early 1950s. “Leadership, Not Politics,” was Warren’s campaign slogan and guiding principle across his three consecutive terms as governor.

The coming generation of California political leaders, already taking shape, will more closely resemble the electorate – younger, more liberal, more rooted in Southern California. It is likely to stand firmly with immigrants, demand better wages for workers and health care for all. These leaders will not tolerate symbolic border walls, corporate malfeasance or police abuse.

But the Warren legacy – carried on by Brown and Feinstein, each in their own way – of independence from party orthodoxy and leadership before politics, gave the state balanced budgets, gun control, wilderness and coastal protection and a powerful response to climate change, often by mastering the politics of the middle. As veteran Democratic political consultant Bill Carrick noted, “they did big things.” Those ambitions may suffer as well.

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Former tech executive Lexi Reese announced Thursday that she is entering California’s 2024 U.S. Senate contest, adding another Democrat to a growing field of candidates that already includes three members of Congress.

The Google and Facebook veteran enters the contest to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein as a virtual unknown in the nation’s most populous state, home to 22 million voters. In her first run for office she is hoping to distinguish herself as an outsider — “a new candidate with a fresh message,” her advisers say.

That would contrast with established politicians already in the race: Democratic U.S. Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee. “The California dream is dying,” Reese says in an online video launching her campaign. “Millions of families are working hard but barely getting by. It is time to work together to build a better future together.”

Reese filed a statement of candidacy with federal election regulators on June 15, designated a committee to raise funds and indicated she intended to spend personal funds on the campaign. It typically takes tens of millions of dollars to wage a successful statewide campaign in the vast state, which includes some of the nation’s most expensive media markets. It’s not clear how much Reese intends to spend from her personal funds on campaigning. Schiff, for example, had $25 million in his campaign account at the end of March and is likely to have millions more after second-quarter fundraising concludes at the end of June.

With the centrist Feinstein in the twilight of her career, the race in the heavily Democratic state already is shaping up as a showcase for an ambitious, younger generation on the party’s left wing. The seat is expected to stay in Democratic hands — a Republican hasn’t won a Senate race in the state since 1988. And as a first-time candidate, Reese enters the race without an established base of support in a field already splintered by Democratic candidates.

Reese’s website is largely devoted to introducing herself to voters, and asks them to send her an online message about the good and bad of living in the state. Beyond the challenges faced by a first-time candidate, veteran Democratic consultant Bill Carrick warned that a divided Democratic vote could have an unintended advantage – for Republicans.

In California’s last two Senate races, only Democrats advanced to the general election under the state’s top-two election system, in which only the top two primary vote-getters face off in November. “If you have four Democrats in the race who are all running significant campaigns, you are going to open the back door for a Republican to be in the (November) runoff,” Carrick said. “If you divide the Democratic vote by four and somebody is able to become the dominant Republican, you increase the chances you have a Democratic-Republican runoff” in November, Carrick said.

Former baseball MVP and Republican Steve Garvey, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, is considering getting into the race. He would join GOP attorney Eric Early — an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general in 2022 and 2018 and for Congress in 2020. In recent election cycles, California Republicans have targeted criticism at the state’s Democratic-dominated government, faulting the rival party for notoriously high taxes, a homeless crisis, troubling urban crime rates, and out-of-reach housing prices for many working-class families.

Reese’s advisers say she had an opening: Many voters remain undecided with the March primary election still months away, and even the leading Democrats are not broadly known across the state. At Google, she was vice president for global programmatic platforms, among other roles.

The Harvard Business School graduate also has worked for American Express. In her video, Reese recalled challenges in her past — her father lost a longtime job, her parents divorced, her siblings struggled with addiction and a brother died trying to recover. “I understand what financial uncertainty can do to a family,” she said.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s ongoing medical struggles have raised a sensitive political question with no easy answer: Who would California Gov. Gavin Newsom pick to replace her if the seat becomes vacant?

Despite calls from within her own party to resign, Feinstein, who turns 90 next month and is the oldest member of Congress, has given no indication that she is considering stepping down. Her frail appearance, confused interactions with reporters in Washington and the growing list of health challenges disclosed by her office continue to fan questions about her fitness for the job — now and into the future.

Should a vacancy occur, a range of names, from obscure to famous — including Oprah Winfrey — have been floated in California circles as possible replacements. Newsom, who is mentioned as a possible future presidential contender, would also have to deal with political complexities, some of his own making: In 2021 he promised to appoint a Black woman should Feinstein’s seat become open. Meanwhile, a 2024 Senate campaign is underway to fill the seat when the senator’s term ends in January 2025.

The situation has created a sad, public coda for the groundbreaking career of a Democratic leader who shattered gender barriers in California and Washington.

Here’s a look at what could happen:

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF FEINSTEIN’S HEALTH?

In short, much is unknown.

Feinstein returned to the Senate on May 10 — about 10 weeks after being diagnosed, then briefly hospitalized, with shingles in San Francisco. On her return to the Capitol, she was markedly thinner and one side of her face was drooping, apparently from Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which can occur when the shingles virus reaches a facial nerve near the ears. It also can cause hearing loss.

On the advice of doctors, Feinstein’s staff say she is working a lighter schedule as she deals with side effects from the virus, including vision and balance problems. She has been using a wheelchair to get to her office and committee meetings.

Questions have been raised in recent years about Feinstein’s memory and mental acuity, though she has defended her effectiveness. Since her return to Washington, she has at times appeared confused during brief discussions with reporters. Her office also disclosed she suffered a bout of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, which can also be caused by shingles.

Feinstein’s biographer Jerry Roberts told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Sunday that the senator has “a belief in herself to the point of stubbornness, where nobody is going to tell her what she can or cannot do. She has tremendous belief and confidence in her own strength and her own ability.”

NEWSOM’S PROMISE: ELEVATING A BLACK WOMAN TO SENATE

When California Sen. Kamala Harris resigned to become vice president, Newsom faced pressure from both Black, Latino and other groups over a replacement pick. Some felt that he should replace Harris, the only Black woman in the U.S. Senate, with another Black woman. But others thought it was past time for California to have its first Latino senator, and Newsom chose then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla for the job.

But he later promised that if Feinstein’s seat became vacant, he would choose a Black woman to replace her. Should Feinstein step aside, he’ll be expected to make good on the promise.

“He made the commitment and I do not believe there is any wiggle room for the governor not to honor his commitment,” said Kerman Maddox, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist and fundraiser who is Black.

“Newsom must honor his promise to appoint a Black woman” if Feinstein resigns, said Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who heads the Legislative Black Caucus in Sacramento. “I trust him at his word. We currently have zero Black women in the Senate, so if the opportunity becomes available the governor must act to help remedy this lack of representation.”

Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney pointed out that any presidential ambitions that Newsom might harbor would be damaged if he backed away from his promise to name a Black woman, noting that the candidate favored by Black voters has won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination for every cycle since 1992.

“The last thing you want to do if you are thinking about running for president is alienating the nominating wing of the Democratic Party,” Pitney said.

WHICH WAY TO TURN — CARETAKER OR CONTENDER?

In filling a Senate vacancy, Newsom has the authority to name a successor. He could even pick himself, though that is unlikely. State rules dictate when an election would have to be held.

Newsom’s choices all run risks.

He could get entangled in the ongoing Senate campaign and choose one of the declared candidates to fill a Feinstein vacancy.

Another option would be to select a caretaker, and then leave it to voters to decide in next year’s election — someone who would hold the seat but is not a Senate candidate. That’s where names like Winfrey come up — a celebrity who is Black and happens to meet Newsom’s appointment pledge. However, Newsom also might find it challenging to land on someone willing to take a short-term appointment.

If he picked one of the declared Senate candidates, Newsom would unsettle the growing field and elevate that person to frontrunner status. U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, who is Black, is already running against fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, who both are white.

Lee “is far and away the most qualified African American woman to replace Sen. Feinstein if a vacancy becomes available,” Maddox said.

In a recent interview with Fox 11 TV in Los Angeles, Newsom said he was being swamped with recommendations for how to fill a possible Senate vacancy. He calls Feinstein a mentor and one of his closest friends, and said he was hoping he never had to make a decision to fill her seat.

He noted that the primary was quickly approaching in March, and added that he was sensitive to criticism that voters should be picking their elected officials, hinting that he might choose a caretaker to hold the spot, if one occurs.

“I get it. For those who say, ‘Enough of Newsom making these picks!’ I get it. I’m with you. I understand,” he said.

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