Arguing that California needs a new type of representation in the nation’s capital, Silicon Valley executive Lexi Reese announced Thursday that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by outgoing Senator Dianne Feinstein.

More of the same won’t give us different results and we need better results, said 48-year-old Reese. Bad reality TV fights that do nothing to help California or American families. That won’t give us any different results.

Reese, a Democrat who previously worked at Google, Facebook, American Express and other companies, never ran for office.

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She joins a crowded field vying for Feinstein’s seat next year.

Representative Adam Schiff of Burbank, Katie Porter of Irvine, and Barbara Lee of Oakland are the top Democrats seeking the seat, while attorney Eric Early and veteran James Bradley are the most well-known Republicans. Former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star legend Steve Garvey, also a Republican, is also considering a run.

Reese, while prominent in business circles, is not as well known as any of the other Democrats running for the seat. Reese declined to disclose her net worth, said she did not want to give an inaccurate number and would file required financial disclosures. She said she could not fund her campaign herself, but planned to invest a significant amount of money in her campaign.

I don’t have a definitive number because I think it depends on how this goes, Reese said. I think it’s very important to say that this campaign will only be made possible through the support of tens of thousands and millions of Californians.

Her campaign team consists of experienced strategists, such as President

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California has a long history of wealthy individuals running unsuccessfully for office and either self-funding their campaigns or contributing a significant amount, such as Republicans Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina and Democrat Al Checchi.

Reese claims she will be successful because of her background in creating opportunities for small businesses and non-profits over nearly three decades in technology and business, as well as her background in growing up in an economically struggling family.

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Her father worked at Sears for more than two decades before losing his job in the 1980s due to automation, Reese said. Her parents divorced and her siblings struggled with addiction. Her sister recovered, but her brother died from it in 2017.

“So I know very well,” Reese said. “It’s very personal to me that when you lose a paycheck, you lose a lot more than the dollars. It can be a loss of dignity. It can be a loss of security that keeps your family together.”

These experiences provide her with a unique perspective and skillset to unlock the economy and create pathways to more inclusive, shared prosperity, she said.

She said she had been talking to people in the state for the past year and decided to run away because of the serious issues facing residents.

California is great in so many ways, but our economy is a hot mess, Reese said. California is becoming increasingly unlivable. It is expensive. Homelessness is out of control. Housing is out of reach. Crime and gun violence are on the rise. Educational outcomes for low-income children have fallen. And we are facing massive changes in climate that are bringing fire and flooding to our doorsteps.

Many of these issues are addressed by state and local governments, and some of Reese’s proposals, such as adding digital citizenship to the public school curriculum, do not fall within the purview of the federal government.

She said the federal government can influence issues such as creating a federal minimum wage for teachers, paying for education and lifetime benefits for teachers and health care workers, providing human capital tax credits to companies that invest in their employees. , and reducing federal taxes and regulations for small and medium-sized businesses. She said she would propose legislation to pay federal elected officials the $7.25 federal hourly minimum wage.

Access to abortion, gun control and protection of the LGBTQ+ community are also among their top priorities.

Let’s really think about federal legislation through the eyes of the families who will live with the consequences, Reese said. In my world, you argue and debate, and then you disagree and affirm. And I feel like we’ve seen a lot of food fights lately in the Senate, but we haven’t seen the dedication in a way that shows up in the real day-to-day lives of families. And that’s what I want to change.