Butler, 44, was leading Emily’s List, the PAC that supports abortion-supporting female candidates, until Newsom announced over the weekend he had chosen her to fill the seat held by the late Dianne Feinstein. Butler was sworn in to replace Feinstein on Tuesday afternoon, becoming the third black female in history to serve in the Senate.
According to a Newsweek article, Butler has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland since 2021. Her biography at Emily’s List and on Twitter – now conveniently scrubbed – both said she lives in Maryland. Federal Election Commission filings dated August 31 also cited Silver Spring, Maryland as her residence.
FEC documents previously stated Butler (pictured at left) lived in a suburb of Los Angeles before moving to Maryland two years ago, according to Newsweek.
Depending on one’s view, Newsom wielded enormous political power or a political hand grenade, or both, when faced with appointing Feinstein’s successor. Several powerful Democrats are currently campaigning for the seat, which is up for grabs in a primary now just five months away. Rep. Katie Porter and Rep. Adam Schiff are just two prominent names currently campaigning to win that primary.
The governor also cornered himself by stating publicly in 2021 that Feinstein’s successor would be a black woman. Many assumed that person would be Rep. Barbara Lee, a veteran Democrat who is also running for the Senate seat, but Newsom chose a political outsider instead.
Jonathan Keller, of the California Family Council, tells AFN Butler is well known to conservatives because she led the state’s largest labor union for many years in the state. That union is SEIU 2015, which represents home care and assisted-living workers.
“[Newsom] has picked someone who checks all of the identity boxes for the Democrats,” Keller says.
Craig Huey, a conservative activist and author, is also familiar with California politics. After more than 30 years fighting the Left in the state, he predicts Butler will attempt to become a new generation of radical activists who follow in Barack Obama's community organizing footsteps.
"It's not a pretty scene," Huey observes, "and for Gavin Newsom it's the best choice he could have made."
Discussing the appointment on American Family Radio, political analyst Josh Hammer compared Feinstein’s reputation as a feminist trailblazer to Butler’s political activism.
“Dianne Feinstein was not necessarily like an AOC-style, absolute crazy, far-left socialist nut job, but she was not considered a pragmatic centrist, certainly not like Joe Manchin,” Hammer said. “Would Laphonza Butler be more lefty, further to the left? Probably. That’s kind of a generational divide.”
This current crop of younger Democrats, he said, are more “radically leftist” than the older generation of Democrats they are replacing.
Hammer, an attorney, compared Butler’s appointment to President Biden replacing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer with Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
“Stephen Breyer was slightly more pragmatic,” Hammer recalled. “He had some peculiar jurisprudence moments, where he tended to side with the conservatives or the moderates. He actually had decent opinions when it came to religious liberty.”
Butler will be “very liberal” in the U.S. Senate, Hammer predicted.
