New California U.S. senator is South Pike graduate
Laphonza Butler, announced Sunday as the appointment to complete the term of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is a 1997 South Pike High School graduate. The school is in Magnolia, in the southwestern part of the state.
Butler was one of four salutatorians for South Pike’s Class of 1997 and also was named to that year’s Hall of Fame — along with T.C. Taylor, now the football coach at Jackson State University, and nine other seniors.
Feinstein died last week at age 90. Butler, who earned a college degree from Jackson State, was the president of EMILY’s List, a fundraising organization for female Democratic candidates, for the past two years before accepting the Senate appointment.
The Washington Post reported that Butler currently lives in Maryland but owns a house in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Butler would re-register to vote in California before taking office.
Butler’s appointment runs through January 2025. Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to swear Butler into office on Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol.
Her Wikipedia biography says she worked as a union organizer for nurses, janitors and hospital nurses in the early 2000s. She moved to California in 2009, where she was active in the Service Employees International Union for more than a decade and became a political ally of Harris.
