SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — San Diego Sen. Toni Atkins will make history Wednesday when she becomes the first woman and first lesbian to hold the California Senate’s top job.

A former Assembly speaker, Atkins is taking over the post of Senate president pro tem from fellow Democrat Kevin de Leon as the chamber gears up for election season and faces a number of thorny challenges, including a reckoning over sexual misconduct, a loss of the Democratic supermajority and an icy relationship with the state Assembly.

If she can keep the support of her fellow Democrats, Atkins will have an unusually long run in the Senate’s top job; she isn’t term-limited until 2024.

Atkins, who has advanced groundbreaking legislation on health care, LGBT rights and housing, is described by her colleagues as kind, measured and compassionate but steadfast in her commitment to fighting for people and ideas she believes in.

“When people first interact with Toni, what they see is a very unassuming, low-key person who has a bit of an earth mother affect about her,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat. “People sometimes mistake that for weakness. But what they don’t see is right underneath that surface is pure steel. She is tough as nails. But she has a huge heart.” Read more via KUSI