Gavin Newsom to Appoint Laphonza Butler to Fill Dianne Feinstein’s Senate Seat, Per Report
Governor Gavin Newsom killed a massive 2024 electoral conspiracy by naming Laphonza Butler to fill the US Senate seat vacated by Dianne Feinstein’s death.
Politico reports:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision.
Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber.
Newsom appears to be making good on a prior pledge to appoint a Black woman to the U.S. Senate if he was given another opportunity.
Butler began her career as a union organizer in Philadelphia and Milwaukee supporting nurses and, upon taking office, would immediately become the first LGBT member of the Senate as well as the first Black Lesbian senator.
Following Senator Feinstein’s passing, some wacky political conspiracies surrounding the 2024 general election began to emerge, namely that Newsom would appoint Vice President Kamala Harris to fill the now-empty senate seat and President Joe Biden would name Gavin Newsom as Vice President and then drop out of the race.
As absurd as that theory was, it was a common refrain in certain social media circles, and now it appears to a false as any reasonable person would expect.
