Democratic Senator Laphonza Butler is the only Black woman currently serving in the United States Senate as a representative of the state of California. Vice President Kamala Harris swore in the nation’s newest congresswoman on Tuesday. According to CNN, she is also the first openly gay Black woman in Congress.
She was appointed to the Senate by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Her current position also makes her the third Black woman in U.S. Senate history.
Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois was the first, serving from 1993 until 1999. Harris was the second, serving from 2017 through 2021 as vice president. Butler was the head of EMILY’s List, a nonprofit dedicated to electing Democratic women who support abortion rights, prior to her nomination.
According to her EMILY’s profile, Butler grew up in Magnolia, Mississippi, and attended Jackson State University, a historically Black university. She grew up in a family where helping others was encouraged.
While in college in Mississippi, she began her job in sales and customer service for a firm named Wireless One. She claimed to be attempting to introduce cable and satellite television to areas of the rural south.
“I was talking to people over the phone, and I learned I could actually have an impact on how those conversations played out just by thinking intentionally about the tone of my voice. I still think about that lesson very much today,” she said in an interview with Elle.com.
Butler became president of SEIU Local 2015, the country’s largest home care workers union and California’s largest union, at the age of 30. She was also the vice president of SEIU International and the president of the SEIU California State Council.
She told Elle.com that she was able to connect her career with her mother’s while working with SEIU. She remembers working as a national leader for SEIU’s security officers’ organizing drive. Her mother had also worked as an inexperienced security officer carrying a handgun in some of New Orleans’ most dangerous projects, she claimed.
“There have been parallels in my career and what I knew my mom experienced as a worker herself,” Butler said. “I always felt like the work I’ve done has been my opportunity to continue my mom’s journey and to make those jobs better for the children of those workers.”
Butler worked as a campaign advisor for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2020 elections. She also served as an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
Before becoming a senator, she was the first Black woman to lead Emily’s List. “Being the first Black woman to lead the organization is really about helping to facilitate the voice of Black women, who have always been the backbone of the Democratic Party, and help them know that they belong at EMILY’s List,” she stated at the time.
During her time in the labor movement, she was also involved in the push to raise the minimum hourly wage in California to $15, making it the first state in the country to do so.