Laphonza Romanique Butler ( ; born May 11, 1979) is an American labor union official and former politician who served as an interim

United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

from 2023 to 2024. Butler began her career as a

union organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. In some unions, the organizer's role is to recruit groups of workers under the organizing ...

, and served as president of California SEIU State Council from 2013 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, she was a regent of the University of California system from 2018 to 2021, and the president of

EMILY's List EMILYs List is a left-leaning American political action committee (PAC) that aims to help elect Democratic female candidates in favor of abortion rights to office. It was founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1985. The group's name is an acronym for "E ...

from 2021 to 2023. Butler is a longtime ally of

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

. On October 1, 2023, California Governor

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

chose Butler to fill the United States Senate seat left vacant by the death of

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel Feinstein (; June 22, 1933 – September 29, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1992 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 38th ...

, becoming the first openly LGBT African American to serve in the Senate. Soon after taking office, she announced on October 19, 2023, that she would not run for a full term in the 2024 election.

Adam Schiff Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2024. A m ...

was elected to succeed her.

Early life and education

Butler was born on May 11, 1979, in

Magnolia, Mississippi Magnolia is a city in Pike County, Mississippi and the county seat. The population was 2,420 at the 2010 census. Magnolia is within the McComb, Mississippi McComb micropolitan area, Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Magnolia was founded in ...

, the youngest of three children. Her father died of

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...

when Butler was 16 years old. She graduated as a salutatorian from South Pike High School in 1997. Butler earned a bachelor's degree in political science from

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a Public university, public Historically Black colleges and universities, historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and ...

in 2001.

Career

Butler began her career as a

for nurses in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

and

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, janitors in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and hospital workers in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

. In 2009, she moved to

, where she organized in-home caregivers and nurses and served as president of SEIU United Long Term Care Workers, SEIU Local 2015. Butler was elected president of the California SEIU State Council in 2013. She undertook efforts to boost California's

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

and raise

income taxes An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

on the wealthiest Californians. As president of SEIU Local 2015, Butler endorsed

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

in the

2016 Democratic presidential primary Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President of th ...

. Butler was one of California's electors who voted for Clinton in the 2016 election. In 2018,

California Governor The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, th ...

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

appointed Butler to a 12-year term as a

regent of the University of California The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sys ...

. She resigned from her role as regent in 2021. Butler joined SCRB Strategies, a California-based political-consulting firm, as a partner in 2018. At SCRB, she played a central role in

's 2020 presidential campaign. She has been a political ally of Harris's since the latter's first run for

California Attorney General The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, when she helped Harris negotiate a shared SEIU endorsement in the race. Butler advised

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

in its dealings with organized labor while at SCRB, at a time when Uber was attempting to stop state legislation from classifying its drivers as employees. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that Butler "advised Uber on how to deal with unions like the Teamsters and S.E.I.U., and sat in on several face-to-face meetings between the gig companies and union representatives". Butler left SCRB in 2020 to join

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

as director of public policy and campaigns in North America. In 2021, Butler was named the third president of

. She was the first black woman and first mother to lead the organization. In February 2022, Butler joined the board of directors of

Vision to Learn Vision to Learn is a US nonprofit organization that provides free optometry services to children in low-income communities. History Founded by philanthropist Austin Beutner in 2012, the organization started with a single mobile clinic in Los ...

U.S. Senate

Appointment

In February 2023, incumbent U.S. Senator

announced she would not run for a sixth full term in the Senate in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. On September 29, 2023, she died at the age of 90. At the time of Feinstein's death, several prominent candidates had already announced campaigns for her seat, including U.S. Representatives

Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician who has served as the 52nd mayor of Oakland since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a United States House of Repr ...

Katie Porter Katherine Moore Porter (born January 3, 1974) is an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. representative from California from 2019 to 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Dem ...

, and

. California Governor

had previously pledged to nominate a black woman to the office. On October 1, 2023, Newsom chose Butler to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Feinstein's death, fulfilling his pledge to appoint a black woman. Butler was selected despite not being a resident of California, as she had moved to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in 2021. The

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

requires only that senators be "inhabitants" of the state they represent. Newsom's office said that Butler would re-register to vote in California before taking office as a senator. Shortly before nominating Butler, Newsom announced that his nominee would be free to run in 2024 if that person so chose, a departure from his previous position. After being sworn in, Butler announced she would not seek election to a full Senate term or run in the November 2024 special election for the final two months of Feinstein's term.

won both elections. When she was sworn in on October 3, 2023, Butler became the first openly lesbian Black woman in Congress, the first openly

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

member of the U.S. Senate from California, and its first openly LGBT Black member.

Tenure

Butler made her first floor speech on January 17, 2024. Since February 2024, she has read aloud from banned books on the Senate floor to bring attention to book banning. In January 2024, Butler voted for a resolution proposed by

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

to apply the

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

provisions of the

Foreign Assistance Act The Foreign Assistance Act (, et seq.) is a United States law governing foreign aid policy. It outlined the political and ideological principles of U.S. foreign aid, significantly overhauled and reorganized the structure of U.S. foreign assista ...

to U.S. aid to Israel's military. The proposal was defeated, 72 to 11. Butler resigned from the Senate on December 8, 2024, and was succeeded by Adam Schiff, who in November 2024 was elected both to complete the remaining weeks of Feinstein's Senate term and to the new Class 1 Senate term beginning in January 2025.

Committee assignments

* Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs ** Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development **

Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

** Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment * Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ** Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management **

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), stood up in March 1941 as the "Truman Committee," is the oldest subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (formerly the Committee on Govern ...

* Committee on the Judiciary ** Subcommittee on the Constitution (Chair) ** Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism ** Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights ** Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law * Committee on Rules and Administration

Caucus memberships

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is made up of Black members of the United States Congress. Representative Yvette Clarke from New York, the current chairperson, succeeded Steven Horsford from Nevada in 2025. Although most members belong ...

Personal life

Butler is a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

, and she and her wife, Neneki Lee, have a daughter. They moved to

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

, in 2021 when she assumed the presidency of EMILY's List, while continuing to own a home in View Park, California, in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. In October 2023, when Newsom appointed her to the Senate, she re-domiciled to that home and re-registered to vote in California.

References

External links

Senator Laphonza Butler
official U.S. Senate website * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Laphonza 1979 births Living people 2016 United States presidential electors 21st-century African-American businesspeople 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American women politicians 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century United States senators Activists from Los Angeles African-American activists African-American business executives African-American LGBTQ people African-American people in California politics African-American United States senators American lesbian politicians American political consultants American trade union leaders American women activists American women business executives American women trade unionists Businesspeople from Los Angeles Businesspeople from Mississippi Democratic Party United States senators from California Female United States senators Jackson State University alumni Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign LGBTQ members of the United States Congress LGBTQ people from California LGBTQ people from Mississippi People associated with the 2020 United States presidential election People from Magnolia, Mississippi People from Silver Spring, Maryland Politicians from Greater Los Angeles Trade unionists from California Trade unionists from Mississippi University of California regents