Harris resigns from Senate 2 days before inauguration

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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris stepped down Monday from her Senate seat.

"As I assume my duties as Vice President of the United States, I would like to thank the people of California for the honor of serving them in the U.S. Senate over the past four years," Harris wrote in a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom alerting that her resignation would become effective at noon E.T.

Fox News obtained the letter from a Harris aide.

READ THE KAMALA HARRIS RESIGNATION LETTER

Harris will be succeeded as the junior senator from the Golden State by Alex Padilla, the current California secretary of state.

Padilla, a son of Mexican immigrants who was selected  a month ago by Newsom to replace the vice president-elect, will become the first Latino to represent California in the Senate in the state’s 170-year history.

VICE PRESIDENT PENCE CALLS HARRIS TO OFFER CONGRATULATIONS

"Alex Padilla worked his way from humble beginnings to the halls of MIT, the Los Angeles City Council and the state Senate, and has become a national defender of voting rights as California’s secretary of state," Newsom said last month in naming Padilla.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla toured Mark Twain Elementary School before speaking at this press conference to promote support for Proposition 13, the historic school facilities bond, in Long Beach, February 28, 2020. (Photo by Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images)

Harris steps down from the Senate two days before her Wednesday inauguration, when she’ll make history as the nation’s first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president.

The vice president-elect has made history throughout her career in politics and public service. In 2010, the then-San Francisco district attorney was elected state attorney general, becoming California’s first female, first Black, and first South Asian attorney general. And six years later, after her 2016 Senate election victory, she became the state’s first Black senator.

LIVE UPDATES FROM FOX NEWS ON THE BIDEN INAUGURATION

While she’s resigning her Senate seat, Harris will remain part of the chamber.

As vice president, she’ll preside over the chamber in her Constitutional role as president of the Senate. And with the Senate split 50/50 between Democrats and Republicans, her tie breaking vote will give the Democrats a razor thin majority, the first time her party’s controlled the chamber in six years.