“I'm the granddaughter to Carrie, a sharecropper from Louisiana, crippled at a young age by polio. The granddaughter to Lettie Ruth, a maid who had to take her children to the homes of the white families for whom she cleaned and children she cared for even as she worked to get her certificate as a nursing assistant.”

American labor union official and former politician

Laphonza Butler is an American labor union official and former politician. She served as a United States senator from California from 2023 to 2024, and has worked in labor and Democratic politics for much of her career. She began as a union organizer and later led the California SEIU State Council from 2013 to 2018. Butler was also a regent of the University of California system from 2018 to 2021, and served as president of EMILY's List from 2021 to 2023.