By Jondi Gumz
Gov. Gavin Newsom chose Laphonza Butler, the first Black woman to lead Emily’s List, a Democratic political action committee helping pro-choice female candidates run for office and a labor leader with California experience, to fill the Senate seat.
On Oct. 2, Vice President Kamala Harris, who represented California in the Senate herself, administered the oath of office for Butler as her partner, Neneki Lee, held the Bible.
Laphonza Butler
Harris became an ally of Butler in 2010 when Butler helped negotiate a labor endorsement of Harris in her successful attorney general campaign.
Butler, 44, will finish Feinstein’s term, which ends in 2024. She hasn’t said if she will run to keep the seat.
Butler was president for 10 years of Service Employees International Union Local 2015, representing 325,000 nursing home and home care workers, successfully pushing then-Gov. Jerry Brown for a $15 minimum wage in California.
She was a Job Quality Fellow at the Aspen Institute in 2017-18, sharing her strategy to expand training for home care workers, which she believed would improve patient care and reduce medical costs, and integrate them into long-term care teams.
In 2018, Gov. Brown appointed her to a 12-year term on the UC Board of Regents. She resigned in 2021 to head Emily’s List.
The Senate has the power to approve treaties, such as the pandemic preparedness treaty proposed by the World Health Organization to take effect in May 2024. The U.S. Constitution requires two-thirds of Senators present for treaty approval.
Born in Magnolia, Mississippi, Butler has said that watching her mother care for ailing father while working multiple jobs motivated her. A graduate of the historically Black Jackson State University, she began her career as an organizer for nurses in Baltimore and Milwaukee. She then organized janitors in Philadelphia and hospital workers in New Haven.
She moved to California in 2009.
Butler was living in Maryland with her partner and their daughter. She owns a home in the LA area and Newsom expected her to re-register to vote in California before being sworn in.
With Butler, Democrats now have a 52-49 majority in the Senate, giving them a cushion on close votes.
Butler, 44, has not run for political office herself, but in 2020 she was a strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris as she ran for president.
“She’s the only choice,” Newsom. “Representation matters…I thought that was the right thing to do.”
He added, “She has a deep understanding of the legislative process.”
Newsom had previously said he would appoint a Black woman to the seat if it became open, and choosing Butler meets that promise.
Butler will be the only Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.
This is Newsom’s second appointment to the Senate. In 2021, he chose then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla to succeed Kamala Harris after she was elected vice president.