Powerful state Democrat Kevin de León to challenge Feinstein for Senate

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León represents a Los Angeles district. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León represents a Los Angeles district. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Powerful state Democrat Kevin de León to challenge Feinstein for Senate 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, who has been at the forefront of Democratic efforts in Sacramento to counter the policies of President Trump, rocked the national political landscape Sunday by announcing that he will challenge fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in next year’s election.

De León jumped into the race via an 82-second video online on his new U.S. Senate campaign website. In the video, de León talked about the hard work of his immigrant mother and his upbringing in a poor neighborhood. His campaign will contrast his modest background with that of Feinstein, the 25-year senator and resident of San Francisco’s Pacific Heights who has a net worth of $79 million, who he says hasn’t countered Trump forcefully enough.

“We just have two very different world perspectives,” de León said in an interview Sunday. “The state has changed significantly over the past 25 years, and we’re overdue for a real debate on the issues.

“We’re taking on the political monarchy, but we’re ready,” de León said.

The 84-year-old Feinstein is the Senate’s ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and a mainstay of the party’s Washington establishment. She has never faced a serious electoral challenge from another Democrat and hasn’t even debated an opponent from either party since 2000, but her campaign said she would be willing to do so against de León.

Feinstein made no comment about de León on Sunday, but her leading political strategist, Bill Carrick, was dismissive — saying the Los Angeles Democrat, who will be termed out next year, was simply “looking for a gig.”

Progressives have been frustrated with Feinstein, saying she has not been tough enough on Trump in a state that is at the center of left-wing opposition to the president. She has voted to confirm half of his 22 cabinet-level and other top appointees, and said at a Commonwealth Club event in San Francisco last month that Trump “has the ability to learn and to change. And if he does, he can be a good president. And that’s my hope.”

De León said that moment pushed him to challenge Feinstein.

“Young ‘Dreamers’ don’t have the luxury of patience if (Trump) kills DACA,” de León said, referring to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for undocumented immigrants who arrived here as children. “The severity of what’s happening in Washington, D.C., is having a severe impact on the most vulnerable in California.”

De León, 50, has put himself at the center of the state’s opposition to Trump. He sponsored a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this month that restricts the ability of local and state law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal authorities seeking to deport undocumented immigrants. He is also the author of a bill that would require California to chart a course for obtaining all its electric power from carbon-free sources by 2045, legislation that is on hold until next year.

Recent public polls show a softening of support for Feinstein, including a survey by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies that found that only 45 percent of registered voters said they were “inclined” to re-elect the senator, compared with 41 percent who were not.

Still, de León’s challenge is steep. Feinstein has near-universal name recognition, a place in history as California’s first female senator and the backing of the party establishment. Her support is strong among women and in the voter-rich Bay Area and Los Angeles County.

Soon after Feinstein announced for re-election last week, fellow Democrats, including California’s other U.S. senator, Kamala Harris, endorsed her, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti held a fundraiser for her. The United Farm Workers union also endorsed her, which could help counter de León’s strategy of running up votes among Latinos.

De León is also looking to assemble backing among African Americans, younger voters and those who support Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He hopes to peel off Sanders fans through his backing of a single-payer, “Medicare for all” health care system, something Feinstein opposes.

Winning the support of the Sanders wing could result in a flood of small-dollar donations from outside California and grassroots support from inside the state. One influential progressive, Daily Kos online site founder Markos Moulitsas, said Sunday he was ready to volunteer for and donate to de León’s candidacy.

“Kevin de León represents modern California — aggressively progressive, innovative and in touch with this state’s growth demographics,” Moulitsas said. “Dianne Feinstein has had an amazing run, but the California she thinks she represents — one in which we’re supposed to give Donald Trump the chance to be a great president — no longer exists.”

But Carrick, Feinstein’s political adviser, pointed out that de León supported Hillary Clinton over Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

“And now, suddenly, he’s the head of the progressive movement?” Carrick said. “He’s an establishment politician, and now he’s masquerading as the leader of the progressive movement.”

De León responded that progressives have gravitated to his leadership on issues like health care, the environment and education, where “it’s not just that I voted. I led and shaped all of those policy issues.”

Feinstein doesn’t lack for support on the left. Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, which gave $90 million in 2016 to female pro-choice Democratic candidates, said the organization will do what it takes to keep Feinstein in office.

“Particularly right now, she is in such a critical place in the U.S. Senate,” Schriock said. “I know it’s hard to wait, and people have ambition. But you’ve got one of the best senators in the country, and she’s at the top of her game.”

De León has other problems. He is not widely known outside Sacramento and his Los Angeles district, and any Republican on the top-two primary ballot is likely to grab at least 25 percent of the vote, though no major GOP candidate has yet emerged.

“We’ve seen this from many people who try to run statewide from Sacramento,” said Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta. “They’re running from a small base. There have not been a lot of people who have made it out.”

De León was born in San Diego, the son of a maid who emigrated from Mexico. He was elected to the state Assembly in 2006 and to the state Senate in 2010, representing a district that includes downtown and East Los Angeles.

De León began the legislative session in December with an aggressive anti-Trump tone, saying California would lead the “resistance” to the president’s policies that target illegal immigration and government efforts to minimize climate change.

He led the Senate this year through major policies requiring two-thirds approval in both houses, including on a gas tax and vehicle registration fee to pay for the state’s transportation needs, extending California’s cap-and-trade program to combat climate change, and a new real-estate fee to pay for affordable housing.

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, and Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com, mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli, @MelodyGutierrez