By William J. Ford
Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) said she understood the significance of math when she walked into the U.S. Senate chamber last year as just the third Black woman and 12th Black person ever to serve in the chamber.
Butler, who will step down when her term expires in January, said the number of elected Black women senators could double this fall if voters elect U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D).
“I’m so excited that we are about to move beyond the acceptance of having just one. We’re going to be bold enough to send two to the United States Senate,” Butler said Friday, the third day of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s legislative conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
“I’m excited for the doors that they are going to keep kicking open when we are no longer counting how many, but that we are welcoming women, Black women, women of color, women of all experiences and walks of life to the highest chamber in our United States government,” Butler said.
Butler was appointed to the Senate after the death of longtime California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Only two Black women have been elected to the chamber: Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois was the first, in 1992, and Vice President Kamala Harris was elected in 2016 from California.
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