Gavin Newsom’s Choice for Senator Is a Pure Political Play

You have to wonder what Dianne Feinstein, a no-nonsense senator whom leading Democrats often criticized for focusing on policy rather than politics, would have thought of the choice to replace her.

Laphonza Butler, the political organizer chosen by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill her Senate seat, commendably rose from poverty in Magnolia, Miss., where her widowed mother worked to support three children. She rose from heading a union local to becoming director of public policy at Airbnb. At age 44, her current job is heading the liberal feminist group EMILY’s List in Washington, D.C.

But her appointment is also marinated in identity politics at its most craven. Governor Newsom’s announcement emphasized that Butler would be “the first Black lesbian to openly serve in the U.S. Senate.” Unmentioned was the fact that her career was propelled forward by Vice President Kamala Harris, for whom she has been an adviser for the past dozen years and whose seat she will now hold.