The Washington Post ran a story a couple days ago about who Hillary Clinton’s nominee for Vice President ought to be. After some thought, playing with the widget a bunch, and a lot of research, I think it’s pretty clear that what Hillary needs is a candidate with strong progressive bona fides and labor connections, who’s smart and well-spoken. It would also really really help if this candidate embodied the immigration issue i.e. was Asian-American or Latino. My personal view is that it would be great if the candidate was not from the North-East or the Midwest, and was instead from the West, a part of the country that is growing faster than ever, has a high immigrant population and is full of young people, eager to be involved in politics.
The person who best fits these descriptions is Xavier Becerra, the US Representative from California’s 34th district. He’s smart, fluent in English and Spanish, the 4th ranking Democrat in the House and is still under 60. He’s experienced, having been in Congress for 26 years (only slightly less than Bernie Sanders) and has been on the progressive side of issues for his entire time there.
California is a Democratic stronghold, a true melting pot that embodies the best ideals of America — tolerance, diversity, innovation and a role for the state in leveling the playing field. Governor Jerry Brown is a liberal lion (who was sadly too old to run for President, otherwise he’d immediately have had my undying support) who has accomplished an enormous amount and showed that liberal governments can be fiscally responsible while investing in their constituents. The Republican scare-mongering about the tech industry fleeing due to “big government” have not been realized — Silicon Valley is thriving and continues to employ large numbers of young people, many of them immigrants.
Most important of all, it is the largest state in the country by population and it’s about time that it got some love. The last person to run in a national general election from California was Ronald Reagan. Now, 28 years later, it’s time for a Californian to step up and take the national stage and I think Xavier Becerra is our man.