Silicon Valley tech executive weighs U.S. Senate bid in California

Silicon Valley executive Lexi Reese, a Democrat, announced Thursday that she is considering running for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

“As a working mom, I’ve spent my career in nonprofits and at technology and financial services businesses — working to help create economic opportunity for women and small businesses. I want to put that expertise to work on behalf of working Californians to make lives easier for everyone in our state,” Reese said in a press release. “Our great state is at a tipping point, and I believe we need leaders with a different perspective to get us on the right track.”

Reese, 48, previously worked at Google, Facebook, American Express and other tech companies. It’s unclear if Reese is wealthy enough to self-fund a campaign if she chooses that route.

Reps. 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 baseball legend Steve Garvey is also considering a run. While some are more prominent than others, none of the candidates who are officially in the race are strongly well-known statewide.

Reese, who did not respond to a request for comment, does not appear to have run for elected office previously. She has made a handful of small donations to Democrats, including for former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s unsuccessful 2022 gubernatorial effort, President Biden’s winning 2020 campaign and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 White House bid, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

When she was chief operating officer at Gusto, a payroll provider, Reese outlined her guiding principles or “blueprint” in an article on the website of Silicon Valley startup Coda:

Reese’s “best days,” she wrote, include “being around and meeting people that are smart, generous, kind, and teach me something.”

And, Reese wrote, if people want “to get the best from me,” “call my BS — when I don’t practice what I preach on leadership, call me out. Real bummer if my say/do ratio is off.”