New California Senator Laphonza Butler’s Hollywood Connections

When actress Yvette Nicole Brown first heard that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had appointed Laphonza Butler to serve as U.S. Senator on Oct. 1, filling the seat left vacant following the death of longstanding Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, her immediate thought was, “Of course.” Having been a part of the search committee that ushered in Butler’s historic appointment to president of EMILYs List in 2021, Brown has witnessed the newly minted politician’s leadership firsthand.

“She was instantly a rock star,” says the EMILYs List board member. “She was the first woman of color — Black woman — to lead EMILYs List. She was the first mother we ever had. That brought a whole other energy to what we were doing as an organization.

“When you meet her and get to talk to her, she’s a straight shooter,” adds Brown. “She’s confident and kind and smart, and down for diversity in a way that a lot of people say they are, but don’t walk it. As a Black woman and as a lesbian woman, she cares about issues that a lot of people in the Senate don’t or won’t be able to speak on. It’s uniquely what our government needs right now.”

One of those issues is labor, which remains at the center of the entertainment industry as negotiations continue between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Across industries, including healthcare, transportation, and hospitality, more than 453,000 workers have participated in 312 strikes in the U.S. this year alone. Butler began her career as a union organizer for nurses and hospital workers along the East Coast before serving for more than a decade as president of SEIU California and SEIU 2015, the largest union in California and the largest long-term care local in the country. A recent statement from the current president of SEIU Local 2015, Arnulfo De La Cruz, credits Butler for California’s passage of the nation’s first $15 statewide minimum wage in 2016.

Continues Brown, “The thing that I’ve learned is there’s a lot of people that don’t want to be on the front lines when it comes to the labor strike that our industry is going through right now because they’re worried about, ‘Well, how’s this going to affect me?’ And ‘I want to keep working. I don’t want to upset anybody.’ There’s a certain point when you have to care more about other people than your own personal circumstances, and Laphonza is that type of fighter.”

During Butler’s two-year tenure at EMILYs List, the political action committee (PAC) which works to get Democratic pro-choice women elected to office continued its approach of leaning into the power of Hollywood to achieve that goal. The organization’s sixth annual Pre-Oscar Breakfast — held in March 2023 and themed “How Women Change The World” — counted actresses Sophia Bush, Lisa Ann Walter, Garcelle Beauvais, and Amber Riley among attendees. Past celebrity guests have included Jane Fonda, Lucy Liu, Regina King, Robin Thede, Olivia Munn, and Gloria Calderón Kellett. The Creative Council of EMILY’s List’s is co-chaired by comedian Chelsea Handler and producer Paul Bernon.

This past February, EMILYs List implemented a three-week virtual training initiative geared toward women who are thinking about running for local office. In July, the PAC announced the Madam Mayor program to support women running for local executive office around the country. Butler’s appointment following these expansions is an example of the organization’s mission realized, says Brown.

“EMILYs List’s whole motto is, ‘Run.’ Before Donald Trump, I thought you had to be a certain type of person to run for office. He proved that anybody can run and once I saw the harm that someone who wasn’t decent could do in office, it changed my mind to ask, ‘Could I run one day?”’ explains Brown, who has also served on the board of SAG-AFTRA. “That’s when I started really leaning into EMILYs List because my thought was there are a lot of decent, kind, smart people who may be exempting themselves from running because they think you have to be a certain type of person.”

EMILYs List didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment regarding plans to replace Butler, but Brown has her own thoughts about the type of leaders that are needed in offices across the nation. “You have to be decent, smart, and have a heart for people. Those are three things that Laphonza has in spades. And that’s the thing that EMILYs List works to find — people who are counting themselves out to say, ‘No, you really could run. And we could help you get there,’” Brown says. “In her appointment, Laphonza’s living out that vision.”

What’s still unclear is whether Butler will run for the Senate seat in 2024’s election, which counts three U.S. Reps already in the race: Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Butler, who is the only Black woman in the U.S. Senate, has not yet commented on her plans.

On Friday, Oct. 6, at an EMILYs list luncheon in New York, Butler took the stage and admitted that she hesitated a touch when she got the call from Newsom, going on to say, “I decided I wouldn’t let myself down by choosing to miss another opportunity to serve at my greatest potential. To lead and deliver at my highest impact. To raise my voice to its highest volume on behalf of creating a better, stronger, more equitable future.”