Laphonza Butler To Become California’s First Openly LGBTQ Senator

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced he will appoint Emily’s List president Laphonza Butler to fill the vacant Senate left by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died at the age of 90 on Friday. Upon being sworn in, Butler will become California’s first openly LGBTQ U.S. Senator and the first LGBTQ person of color to serve in the U.S. Senate. https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1708699205206933871 From the New York Times:

Ms. Butler, 44, has been a fixture in California politics for nearly 15 years as a former leader of the state’s largest labor union and an adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris.

In 2021, she became the first Black woman to take the helm at Emily’s List, the fund-raising powerhouse dedicated to electing female candidates and supporters of reproductive rights.

In choosing Ms. Butler, who is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday, Mr. Newsom followed through on a pledge he made more than two years ago to name a Black woman to the Senate if a vacancy were to emerge.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1708791468062593318 The snag in all this is that Newsom told NBC News last month that, in order to not influence next year’s primary election by giving one candidate an advantage, he would instead pick an interim replacement should Feinstein pass before the end of her term. By that time, three high-profile California Dems had thrown their hats in the ring: Representatives Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee. Lee was thought to be an easy choice for the seat since she is female and Black. Today, lagging in fundraising behind Schiff and Porter, she is apparently none too pleased not to get the nod. A spokesman for Newsom indicated that the governor would not require Butler to stay out of the 2024 Senate race. That leaves open the possibility that Butler, a powerhouse fund-raiser at Emily’s List, could still enter the 2024 race for the Senate seat. https://twitter.com/LaphonzaB/status/1708845420703604793 https://twitter.com/HRC/status/1708821768511631826