Despite draft announcement, Sanchez says she's undecided on Senate

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she has made no decision about whether to jump into the California Senate race to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer, despite a leaked draft announcement obtained by POLITICO saying she would enter the race Thursday.

In the draft announcement dated Tuesday, Sanchez, a Democrat, said she would officially announce her candidacy at the Santa Ana train station alongside her “husband, family, and friends” at 11 a.m. Thursday.


Several Democratic congressional sources independently confirmed Sanchez’s decision.

But hours after POLITICO and The Sacramento Bee published stories reporting that she planned to run, the California Democrat said in an interview that “no decision has been made” about the Senate race. She has been considering for weeks whether to seek the seat, which Boxer is vacating after four terms.

If Sanchez does announce her candidacy, the Democratic primary will be hotly contested. California Attorney General Kamala Harris has already declared and is considered a strong front-runner, but Latinos have been encouraging a Hispanic candidate like Sanchez to jump into the race.

Harris has collected a number of high-profile endorsements in the state, and a February poll gave Harris a commanding lead in name recognition over a field of Democratic challengers.

But Sanchez could pull support away from her by appealing to more moderate voters in the state and the growing Latino voter population. Sanchez has $447,000 cash on hand after the 2014 election.

Sanchez has served in Congress since 1997. She’s considered a foreign policy expert, having served on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. The California politician also has broad appeal across the state for her work with building the drought-stricken state’s water systems.