PERSON: Laphonza Butler
Employer
EMILY’s List
Position
President
Biography
Laphonza Romanique Butler (born 1978/1979) is an American politician serving as a United States senator-designate of California since 2023. She was the president of EMILY’s List from 2021 to 2023 and was previously a regent of the University of California from 2018 to 2021.
On October 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had chosen Butler to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Dianne Feinstein.
Butler was born in Magnolia, Mississippi, the youngest of three children. Her father died of heart disease when she was 16 years old. She attended South Pike High School in Magnolia and Jackson State University.
Butler began her career as a union organizer for nurses in Baltimore and Milwaukee, janitors in Philadelphia, and hospital workers in New Haven, Connecticut. In 2009, she moved to California, where she organized in-home caregivers and nurses, and she 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 and raise income taxes on the wealthiest Californians. As president of SEIU Local 2015, Butler endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Butler was one of California’s electors who voted for Clinton in the 2016 election.
In 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Butler to a 12-year term as a regent of the University of California. She resigned from her role as regent in 2021.
Butler is known for her charitable work on social causes and serves on the Board of Vision to Learn, a non-profit founded by Austin Beutner that provides reading glass to children in underserved communities.
Butler joined SCRB Strategies, a California-based political consulting firm, as a partner in 2018. At SCRB, she played a central role in Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. She was known as a political ally of Harris’s since the latter’s first run for California Attorney General in 2010, when she helped Harris negotiate a shared SEIU endorsement in the race. Additionally, Butler advised Uber in its dealings with organized labor while at SCRB.
Butler left SCRB in 2020 to join Airbnb as director of public policy and campaigns in North America.
Butler was named the third president of EMILY’s List in 2021. She was the first black woman and the first mother to lead the organization.
On October 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom chose Butler to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Dianne Feinstein, thus fulfilling his pledge to appoint a black woman to the office. Governor Newsom’s office stated Butler would reregister to vote in California before taking office as a senator.
Upon taking office, she will become the first LGBT member of the U.S. Senate from California and the first black lesbian to serve in the Senate.
Butler is lesbian. She and her partner, Neneki Lee, have a daughter. They moved to Silver Spring, Maryland in 2021 when she assumed the presidency of EMILY’s List. While living in Maryland, Butler owned homes in View Park, California and Los Angeles. In October 2023, she relocated to her home in Los Angeles and reregistered to vote in California.
>> Wikipedia
On October 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had chosen Butler to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Dianne Feinstein.
Butler was born in Magnolia, Mississippi, the youngest of three children. Her father died of heart disease when she was 16 years old. She attended South Pike High School in Magnolia and Jackson State University.
Butler began her career as a union organizer for nurses in Baltimore and Milwaukee, janitors in Philadelphia, and hospital workers in New Haven, Connecticut. In 2009, she moved to California, where she organized in-home caregivers and nurses, and she 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 and raise income taxes on the wealthiest Californians. As president of SEIU Local 2015, Butler endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Butler was one of California’s electors who voted for Clinton in the 2016 election.
In 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Butler to a 12-year term as a regent of the University of California. She resigned from her role as regent in 2021.
Butler is known for her charitable work on social causes and serves on the Board of Vision to Learn, a non-profit founded by Austin Beutner that provides reading glass to children in underserved communities.
Butler joined SCRB Strategies, a California-based political consulting firm, as a partner in 2018. At SCRB, she played a central role in Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. She was known as a political ally of Harris’s since the latter’s first run for California Attorney General in 2010, when she helped Harris negotiate a shared SEIU endorsement in the race. Additionally, Butler advised Uber in its dealings with organized labor while at SCRB.
Butler left SCRB in 2020 to join Airbnb as director of public policy and campaigns in North America.
Butler was named the third president of EMILY’s List in 2021. She was the first black woman and the first mother to lead the organization.
On October 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom chose Butler to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Dianne Feinstein, thus fulfilling his pledge to appoint a black woman to the office. Governor Newsom’s office stated Butler would reregister to vote in California before taking office as a senator.
Upon taking office, she will become the first LGBT member of the U.S. Senate from California and the first black lesbian to serve in the Senate.
Butler is lesbian. She and her partner, Neneki Lee, have a daughter. They moved to Silver Spring, Maryland in 2021 when she assumed the presidency of EMILY’s List. While living in Maryland, Butler owned homes in View Park, California and Los Angeles. In October 2023, she relocated to her home in Los Angeles and reregistered to vote in California.
>> Wikipedia
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