Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat from Orange County, today formally declared her candidacy to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Launching her campaign at a train station in her hometown of Santa Ana Sanchez said, “There are two kinds of candidates. Those who want to be something and those who want to do something. I am running for Senate because I am a doer. I intend to campaign up and down this great state, in every community, and I will answer tough questions and make my positions clear.”
Highlighting her ethnic appeal Sanchez said, “I would be the first Latina ever elected to the United States Senate,” she said. “I would be the first Hispanic-American, if you can believe this, elected to the Senate from California.”
Sanchez Sanchez will be running against Attorney General Kamala Harris, who entered the race for the Democratic nomination early.
According to a report in Frontiersmedia.com Sanchez has some work to do in the LGBT community. Though she was lauded and regularly appeared at gay events when she first ran for office and shortly thereafter—a darling among gays for defeating virulent anti-gay Republican Bob Doran in 1996—she has not been a regular presence for years.
The Republicans in the race are Assemblyman Rocky Chavez of Oceanside and former state party chairman Tom Del Beccaro.
