The recent death of longtime California senator Dianne Feinstein has left an opening in the US Senate, one that governor Gavin Newsom filled this week with the appointment of Laphonza Butler, the president of feminist political action committee Emily’s List. (Newsom made a public promise in 2021 to make his next Senatorial appointment a Black woman.)
Next year candidates (including former Congressional Black Caucus chair Barbara Lee) will face off in a special election for the remaining months of Feinstein’s term—and also in the race for a full six-year term. On Monday, Butler accepted Newsom’s nomination to hold Feinstein’s former Senate seat until then:
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Below, find everything you need to know about California’s newest senator.
She was the first Black woman to lead EMILY’s List
EMILY’s List, a Democratic PAC devoted to helping pro-choice female candidates run for office, made Butler its president in 2021, and later that year, she spoke to Essence about the historic nature of her position, saying: “As the first woman of color and first mother in this role, I am proud to bring my lived experiences along with my organizing and political experiences to the job. Every day I am driven by my mother’s example and my daughter’s future.”
She’s making LGBTQ+ history
Butler—who lives with her partner, Neneki Lee, and their daughter, Nylah, in Maryland (and will be reregistering to vote in California before taking office)—is the first openly lesbian woman to represent California in the Senate, despite the state’s long history of progressive politics and pro-LGBTQ+ legislation.
She has a long (and complex) history of working in organized labor
Prior to her work at EMILY’s List, Butler spent a decade as president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2015, the country’s largest home-care and nursing-home workers union; this context made it surprising to some when she represented Uber in its 2019 fight to avoid classifying its drivers as employees.
She’s a longtime ally of Kamala Harris
Butler played a major role in Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign while working at SCRB Strategies, but their connection goes back much further, with Butler helping Harris negotiate a shared SEIU endorsement when she ran for California attorney general in 2010.
She’s originally from Mississippi
Butler was born in Magnolia, Mississippi, and graduated from Jackson State University, one of the largest HBCUs in the US, in 2001.
