Newsom’s Appointment of Laphonza Butler Is Brilliant
First, a little history. But not too much. I’m eager to get back to talking about my crush.
Back in 2020, when Kamala Harris was elected as Joe Biden’s vice president, my boy Gav appointed Alex Padilla to take her place in the Senate. This made sense because Hispanics make up 40% of California’s population.
But the Black community was not happy. Harris had been the only Black woman in the Senate and the Black community felt that Gav should have appointed another Black woman to replace her. He promised to do just that in the event that he had to make another Senate appointment.
All was well until Sen. Feinstein’s untimely death last week. There were already three people running for her seat in the 2024 election, including a Black woman, Rep. Barbara Lee. If he appointed her for the remaining term, that might give her an unfair leg up in the race for a full term.
Gav announced that he would appoint an interim person to finish Feinstein’s term, someone not currently running in the primary. Because it was widely expected that he would appoint a Black woman, there was an instant uproar that it was insulting to Black women to appoint what amounts to a caretaker senator.
So, back to my crush. And he crushed it! He appointed Laphonza Butler, a gay Black woman, who is the president of Emily’s List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, and she was a former labor leader and adviser to our illustrious vice president when she was running for president.
0 Comments