Central Coast native and former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is being considered for Secretary of Agriculture, replacing Secretary Tom Vilsack as he left the Agriculture Department a week before his tenure ends and before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Vilsack, who has led USDA for eight years and was President Barack Obama’s longest-serving Cabinet secretary, told employees in an email that Friday is his final day. The email did not say why he was leaving early. He has said he wants to remain involved with agriculture after leaving government, but has not detailed those plans.

As Vilsack leaves the department, some in farm country are worried that agriculture may be a low priority for the new administration. It is the only Cabinet position Trump has not moved to fill, yet rural voters were key to delivering him the presidency.

Farm-state lawmakers in Congress say they are eagerly awaiting the decision.

“We brought him home,” Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Thursday of delivering on Trump’s win. “Farmers, ranchers and small town America brought him home. So obviously they’d like to see a secretary of Agriculture that would be their champion. That hasn’t occurred yet. So we hope it will.”

According to exit polls conducted for AP and television networks by Edison Research, about 17 percent of voters in this year’s election were from small cities or rural areas, and 62 percent of them said they voted for Trump. But Trump has little agricultural history, and spoke rarely about farm issues on the campaign trail.

“People don’t know what he stands for in agriculture and everyone’s waiting for the secretary to be named so you can get some clues,” said Roger Johnson, head of the National Farmers Union. Johnson said there is a “growing, intense frustration” that a secretary hasn’t been named.

Trump and his team have interviewed several candidates, including Maldonado, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and they have also talked to potential candidates from Texas and Indiana, home state of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, was at Trump Tower on Thursday.

Incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, in a daily briefing call with reporters on Friday, played down any talk of a delay with the agriculture selection, saying that the president-elect had given it the same amount of attention and consideration as his other Cabinet picks.

Spicer said Trump had met with “several” qualified candidates and would make a decision in the near future.

Vilsack is one of the nation’s longest-serving agriculture secretaries and has remained generally popular in farm country as he worked to balance the needs of high-dollar production agriculture with other growing parts of the industry, including organics. During his tenure, he also focused on rebuilding rural communities, making school meals healthier and resolving civil rights claims against the department.

As for his next steps, he said in a statement that “I intend to be involved in promotion of agriculture and rural America, I hope to be connected to a university and work with young people, and I want to spend time with my family in Iowa.”

Michael Scuse, undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, will be acting secretary until Trump is inaugurated.

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Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

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California voters approved a ballot measure Tuesday allowing recreational marijuana in the nation’s most populous state, handing the legalization movement its biggest victory yet. Voters in eight other states also considered proposals Tuesday to expand legal access to the drug, which is still forbidden by the federal government.

A preliminary exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research showed the measure passed handily.

Proposition 63 was winning with 63 percent of the 3.5 million votes cast.

California’s vote makes the use and sale of recreational cannabis legal along the entire West Coast, giving the legalization movement powerful momentum. That could spark similar efforts in other states and put pressure on federal authorities to ease longstanding rules that classify marijuana as a dangerously addictive drug with no medical benefits.

In addition, Massachusetts voters also legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

California was the first state to approve medical marijuana two decades ago. It was among five states weighing whether to permit pot for adults for recreational purposes. The other states were Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada.

Florida and North Dakota earlier approved medical marijuana measures Tuesday. Arkansas was considering a similar measure and Montana voted on whether to ease restrictions on an existing medical marijuana law.

The other controversial measure was Measure 63, the ammunition restrictions with voters leaning toward expanding some of the nation’s toughest gun control by banning large-capacity ammunition magazines, requiring background checks for ammunition sales and speeding the seizure of firearms from owners who are no longer allowed to own them.

In more measures it looks as though California voters approved proposition giving California prison officials more say in release of prisoners, repeal nearly two-decade-old law limiting bilingual education in schools.

A preliminary exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research found Harris easily defeated her fellow Democrat, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, to win the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Hillary Clinton also was a big winner in the state, according to the poll, extending to seven the string of Democratic presidential victories in the state that started with her husband in 1992.

More election results will be posted as they come in.

Associated Press writers David Crary in New York and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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