Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) announced Thursday, Jan. 8, that she would not seek re-election in 2016.
Boxer made the announcement in a video with her grandson who “interviewed” her, asking questions on behalf of reporters who had been asking about her re-election bid for the past few months.
The incumbent California Senator began her career in Congress when she was elected to the House in 1983. Then in 1992, she acquired her seat in the Senate.
Rumors of Boxer’s possible departure had been circling since late last year. A third-quarter Federal Election Commission filing indicated that the senator had less than $149,000 on hand, a sign that she was not raising money for re-election.
In the video with her grandson, Boxer, 74, said the constant fighting in the Senate did not factor into her decision not to seek a fifth six-year term, nor did her age.
“Some people are old at 40, and some people are young at 80 – it depends on the person. As for me, I feel as young as I did when I got elected. I was in my 50s when I was elected to the Senate,” she said.
Although Boxer will be leaving the seat she has held for many years, she said she is “never going to retire.”
She said she will continue working on issues she loves, work to ensure the Senate seat remains progressive and help the Democratic candidate for president make history.
“But you know what? I want to come home,” she said. “I want to come home to the state that I love so much – California.”
In recent years, Boxer served as head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and has dealt with various issues including highway bills and nuclear safety. For climate change, an issue she is particularly passionate about, Boxer pushed for legislation to establish a national cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. She also opposed the Keystone XL pipeline.
On Thursday, Boxer told reporters that among her biggest regrets were not having done enough to stop the Iraq War, not voting to confirm Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2010, eliminating sexual-assault prosecutions from the military chain of command, and not securing enough votes to dismantle filibusters on climate change legislation.
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior scholar and political expert at the University of Southern California, said Boxer’s “sheer frustration” with the Democrats losing the Senate majority in November may have influenced her decision.
“It’s not only that Democrats are in the minority but that she has lost her committee chair to (Oklahoma Sen.) James Inhofe, who denies global warming,” Jeffe said, according to San Jose Mercury News. “She has lost whatever powers she has wielded on that issue, and that’s tough.”
Recent polling suggested Boxer’s popularity was falling, and Jeffe said Boxer may not do as well in the minority as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has developed a reputation as a moderate and formed ties and trust across the aisle.
Boxer’s departure marks California’s first open Senate race since George H. W. Bush was president.
Among Democratic candidates rumored to run for the open seat include Lt. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, Atty. General Kamala Harris, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and current Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Rumored Republican contenders include San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, former state GOP chairman Duf Sundheim of Los Altos Hills, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (who was defeated by Boxer in 2010) and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
President Barack Obama called Boxer an “institution” that increased women’s access to health care, protected public lands for future generations, and made it possible for more Americans to drink clean water and breathe clean air.
“And more young women have been inspired to achieve their biggest dreams, having Barbara as an incredible role model,” he said in a statement.
Boxer’s long-time partner Feinstein thanked her “for being such a resilient collaborator.”
“We blazed many trails together, and now I’m eager to see where her next steps take her. Barbara is so passionate about so many things, I know her work has really just started. I’m sure she’ll continue to be a role model and inspiration to us all,” Feinstein said.
When Boxer returns to California for good in early 2017, she said she will divide her time between her main home in Rancho Mirage and her condominium in Oakland where some of her family resides.
(With reports from San Jose Mercury News and The Washington Post)
