WASHINGTON — Laphonza Butler was sworn in as California’s newest senator Tuesday, filling the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein just five days after her death.
Butler will stand out in the Senate for many reasons: She is only the third Black woman and the third openly LGBT person to serve in the chamber, and she is one of the youngest members. At 44, she is the fifth-youngest member of a body where the average age was 64 prior to her entrance.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, swore in Butler, a longtime ally. Butler took the oath of office on her personal bible held by her wife, Neneki Lee.
Before Harris’ entrance, Butler and Lee laughed at a private joke as Lee placed a Senate pin on Butler’s lapel. Butler’s mother stood at the end of the aisle in the old Senate chamber, draped in its red carpet and curtains and gilded edges, and watched her daughter be sworn in by another historymaker.
“People know that the Vice President and I have known each other for a long time, but my mother had actually never met the Vice President,” Butler told the Chronicle. “Watching them meet for the first time and see my mom be the witness of something that she never thought she would see in her lifetime, that was very special.”
As Butler walked out of the old Senate chamber, she and California Sen. Alex Padilla spoke quietly, with his hand on her shoulder. The occasion marked the first time both of California’s senators were not white.
Just moments after being sworn in, Butler was swarmed for photos with Black onlookers in the grand Statuary Hall. Butler, her wife, her mother and Padilla stopped again for another ceremonial moment: Butler’s swearing in as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, held in front of one of the few statues of Black people in the U.S. Capitol, Rosa Parks. Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, D-Nev., loudly announced she was the 59th member of the group.
Butler told the Chronicle she sees opportunities to bring people together in a closely divided Senate.
“When I agreed to take on this role, in serving I knew that I was agreeing to do something incredibly difficult — that I was going to agree to to step into the shoes of the leader who had taken San Francisco through some of the most traumatic times in its history. And so I agreed to do something hard. But the labor movement built me for hard things,” Butler told the Chronicle on Tuesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris, right, swears in Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., left, to the Senate to succeed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, during a reenactment of the swearing-in ceremony on Oct. 3, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Butler’s wife, Neneki Lee, center, holds the Bible.
Stephanie Scarbrough/Associated PressButler will serve in the Senate for the majority of the current term, which runs through 2024. The timing of Feinstein’s death means the special election for the final month or so of the term will likely be consolidated with California’s primary and general elections next year. Voters will see two Senate elections on 2024 ballots: a special election to determine who should serve the remainder of the current term and a regular election for the next six-year term that begins Jan. 3, 2025.
“It’s day one, and while it has been an incredibly exciting day one, I am just so focused on making sure that I’m able to honor the legacy and life of Sen. Dianne Feinstein,” Butler told the Chronicle. She declined to say if she would enter the already crowded primary for the Senate seat. Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; Katie Porter, D-Irvine; and Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, are the three top Democrat candidates vying for a full term in the Senate. Among likely voters, Schiff garnered 20% of the vote, followed by Porter (17%) and Lee (7%), a recent Los Angeles Times-Berkeley IGS poll found. Schiff has $29.8 million cash on hand, Porter has $10.3 million and Lee has $1.4 million, according to July federal campaign filings.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., meets with Laphonza Butler before she is sworn in to succeed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Oct. 3, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Shuran Huang/Special to the ChronicleGov. Gavin Newsom has wielded remarkable influence as governor through his appointments. In addition to both of California’s senators, Newsom also appointed California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Butler drew criticism almost immediately because she lives in Maryland, not California. She previously lived in Los Angeles and still owns a home there, but moved to Maryland in 2021 to lead the group Emily’s List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights to public office. She re-registered to vote in Los Angeles on Sunday, the Los Angeles County registrar’s office told the Chronicle.
Despite living for the last two years primarily on the East Coast, Butler has deep ties to California. She rose to power within the labor movement through the Service Employees International Union’s branch representing long-term care workers in the Los Angeles area. When all of the regional long-term care workers unions in California joined forces to become SEIU Local 2015, she was elected president of that larger union. She was also selected to lead the umbrella organization SEIU California, which represents all the union’s local branches in the state.
Butler’s meteoric rise took her through labor organizing, political consulting at top Democratic firm Bearstar Strategies, and a brief stint at Airbnb managing public policy and campaigns.
Butler took her first vote as a senator late Tuesday on a procedural motion to confirm a State Department appointee.
Reach Shira Stein: shira.stein@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @shiramstein
