California State Senate President Pro-Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), who is running against incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in 2018, demanded Wednesday that she join Democrat efforts to shut down the federal government to force Congress to approve the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program without border security.
If not, he warned her, “don’t come back to California.”
From downtown, Los Angeles De León directed the same message to fellow California Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), “Don’t come back to California if you haven’t demonstrated your leadership and your courage to stand up for these young men and women,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
De León issued strong praise, however, for freshman U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and her pledge to block a year-end spending bill in an effort to force Republicans to give DACA recipients — illegal aliens brought to the United States as minors — a path to citizenship under so-called Dream Act legislation.
Harris received a virtual coronation from Democratic leaders, including then President Barack Obama, when she ran to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate in 2016.
Ironically, Feinstein is a sponsor of Dream Act legislation as are Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Feinstein first took office in 1992 after winning her seat in a special election. She is currently serving her fifth term in office and is California’s second-longest serving U.S. Senator.
Heading into the 2018 midterm elections, however, she may have trouble on the horizon. A new poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies found that just 41 percent of likely California voters back her for re-election, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
At the same time, the new UC Berkeley poll showed that just 27 percent of those polled preferred De León and another 32 percent were yet undecided. Among Democrats only, Feinstein polled at 58 percent support to De León’s 22. Among Republicans, 37 percent favored De León to 15 percent for Feinstein. The numbers for Republicans could change as more learn of De León’s part in writing the state’s new “sanctuary state” law and backing for increased gas taxes, the report notes.
Voters may yet have another option in the 2018 U.S. Senate race if Democrat megadonor Tom Steyer were to jump into the race. Steyer has been aggressively campaigning to impeach President Donald Trump.
Feinstein’s team has pointed toward other polls that put support for the long-time incumbent slightly higher, according to the Mercury News. But a September Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll revealed that 50 percent of Californians think Feinstein should retire.
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