(Reuters) - California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a rising star in the Democratic Party, said Tuesday she would seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated in 2016 by Barbara Boxer, who will retire after 33 years in Congress.
Harris' bid, announced via the quiet unveiling of an online campaign website, sets up the prosecutor as a strong contender in a rapidly growing field of potential candidates.
"I will be a fighter for the next generation on the critical issues facing our country," Harris said in the announcement. "I will be a fighter for middle class families who are feeling the pinch of stagnant wages and diminishing opportunity."
Boxer's departure, announced last week, is the first of three anticipated retirements among California's top leaders that should clear the way for a younger generation of politicians who have been waiting in the wings.
Governor Jerry Brown, 76, will have to leave office when his fourth term ends in 2018 because of term limits. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, 81, will be 85 when her term ends.
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, whose support for same-sex marriage while mayor of San Francisco kicked off a wave of social and political change, said on Monday he would not run.
His announcement leaves the field open to potential candidates including Harris, 50, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, 61, both Democrats.
Harris, who, like Newsom, hails from the San Francisco political scene, is a former district attorney who has used her position to develop policy ideas as well as handle prosecutions.
Of African-American and South Asian descent, she is the daughter of two college professors and grew up during the civil rights turmoil of the 1960s in the Bay Area.
(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco)
