The Hill’s Changemakers: Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.)

When Laphonza Butler (D) was sworn in as the newest senator from California, taking the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), she became the only sitting Black female senator, just the third Black woman to serve in the Senate and first openly gay person to represent California in the upper chamber. 

A former president of California’s largest union, a branch of the Service Employees International Union, Butler played a key role in negotiating and passing the state’s landmark minimum wage law, a role that earned her a nod from former President Obama, who named her a “Champion for Change” in 2016. 

She previously served as president of EMILY’s List, which helps elect Democratic women who support abortion right. Before that, she was a board member of BlackPAC, an organization that seeks to activate Black voters. 

“I think that this new opportunity as a senator is about bringing the voices of those who have been left behind and whose voices have not been heard front and center. And being able to make that happen is a real point of pride and opportunity,” she told The Advocate in an interview. 

Butler earned her bachelor’s degree from Jackson State University, a historically Black college, in 2001. 

Her appointment to Congress was celebrated by the Congressional Black Caucus, which said her background and experience would bring a “much-needed perspective” to the Senate, which has only four Black members, including Butler. 

Butler is also one of only three openly LGBTQ sitting senators, all of whom are women. 

With her appointment, LGBTQ representation in Congress stands at a record 13 members and, for the first time in history, LGBTQ people of color have representation in both the House and the Senate. 

Butler has said she will not run for a full term in the Senate next year, but she intends to be “the loudest, proudest champion of California” through the remainder of her term.