New­som picks Laphon­za But­ler to replace Fein­stein in Sen­ate

Gov. Gavin New­som (D‑CA) has select­ed polit­i­cal strate­gist Laphon­za But­ler to replace the late Sen. Dianne Fein­stein in the Sen­ate, accord­ing to peo­ple famil­iar with the mat­ter.
But­ler is the pres­i­dent of EMI­LY’s List, the self-described “nation’s largest resource ded­i­cat­ed to elect­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic pro-choice women to office,” and a long­time labor leader in the Gold­en State. New­som’s deci­sion pass­es over Reps. Adam Schiff (D‑CA), Bar­bara Lee (D‑CA), and Katie Porter (D‑CA), the favorites to win Fein­stein’s seat dur­ing next year’s elec­tion.
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Fein­stein’s term was slat­ed to end in 2024, and New­som had long implied he was only search­ing for an inter­im replace­ment. How­ev­er, New­som’s office con­firmed to the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er on Sun­day that there will not be a “pre­con­di­tion” that this replace­ment is in the Sen­ate only tem­porar­i­ly, set­ting But­ler to poten­tial­ly be a road­block in the way of Schiff, Lee, and Porter’s elec­tion prospects.
Fein­stein died on Fri­day at the age of 90. But­ler react­ed to the news on X, form …