Update, October 2, 2023 at 11:30 AM:
California Governor Gavin Newsom picked Emily’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat vacated by Dianne Feinstein who died from natural causes at age 90 on Friday.
Just hours after she was appointed to represent California in the U.S. Senate, Butler scrubbed her Twitter/X bio that shows she lives and works in Maryland.
U.S. senators are required to be residents of the state they represent.
According to The Gateway Pundit, FEC records show Butler is registered to vote in Maryland.
Butler, 44, will be the third Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. She previously served as a senior campaign adviser to then-VP candidate Kamala Harris.
Butler will be eligible to run for a full Senate term in 2024. She is openly lesbian and shares a daughter with her partner, Neneki Lee.
Sources say Newsom planned to announce Butler as his appointee on Monday, October 2. But his camp jumped the gun late Sunday as reports swirled that Meghan Markle was considering replacing Feinstein in the U.S. Senate.
The Duchess of Sussex’s camp had apparently spoken with wealthy Democratic donors on her behalf.
A major Democratic donor told DailyMail.com: “Meghan is definitely a long-shot but in the craziness that is US politics these days it’s not an impossibility. Crazier things have happened.”
Markle, 42, and her husband Prince Harry, 39, defected from the royal family in search of fame and fortune in the west.
After briefly living in Canada in 2020, they settled in California where Markle was born.
Feinstein was the oldest sitting U.S. senator. She suffered from health problems and was often confused when answering questions from the news media. But her staff denied reports that she had dementia.
Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and became its first female president in 1978.
She made history as San Francisco’s first female mayor after Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down by a disgruntled former city employee.
