This is the Tom Hartman program.

Well greetings my friends, patriots, lovers of democracy, truth and justice, believers and

peace, freedom in the American way, Tom Hartman here with you.

Alex Padilla is the guy that Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has chosen as the

next U.S. senator, has chosen Alex Padilla as the new, essentially, California's new

senator, the replacement for Kamala Harris.

Padilla is the son of immigrants, Mexican immigrants who were a cook and a dishwasher respectively.

He's been a state senator, he is currently the secretary of state for the state of California.

He's a good guy.

And while he was secretary of state, under Padilla's leadership voter registration is an

all-time high, over 22 million Californians are registered to vote, an increase of over

four million since the day he took office.

And voting is happening at the highest rate in nearly seven decades.

He's expanded access to the ballot.

He's protected our elections, overseeing upgrades and all of these kinds of things.

Major issues that he has worked on, legislation that he's worked on, fighting climate change,

expanding educational opportunity, fostering healthier communities, fighting for universal

healthcare, increasing gun safety, passing common sense gun safety measures, like tracking

stolen guns and stopping felons from possessing body armor, harnessing innovation.

He was an engineer.

He fought for ethical advancement of science and technology, author legislation protecting

Californians from discrimination based on genetic information, wrote the bill, creating

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