Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) will announce his bid for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat tomorrow afternoon.

DeVore, elected to his third and final term in the state Assembly a week ago, will do so in an online press conference, according to the Sacramento Bee. He briefly appeared on the conference site Tuesday night, apparently to test how it worked.

At this year's Republican National Convention, several prominent California Republicans mentioned DeVore, who previously worked in the aerospace industry and was also an Irvine city commissioner, as an up-and-coming state Republican.

According to an online biography, he also wrote a book in 1999, China Attacks, which was subsequently banned in China but became popular in Taiwan.

Democrat Boxer, who served as a U.S. representative from Marin County before being elected to the senate in 1992, has not faced a strong challenge since then.

She defeated then-Treasurer Matt Fong by 10 points in 1998, and former Secretary of State Bill Jones by 20 points in 2004.