Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Harvard Professor Claudia Goldin won this year’s Nobel Prize in economics, Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast ever, and Fortune senior editor Claire Zillman shares highlights from Sen. Laphonza Butler’s appearance at Day 1 of Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit. Enjoy your Tuesday.
– The newest senator. Laphonza Butler had to make history in a hurry. California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped Butler, then president of Emily’s List, to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinsteinhours after Feinstein’s death and as Washington faced a government shutdown. Butler recalled the whirlwind weekend at Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Monday.
“The governor did not have a whole lot of time for me to think[things]through. There were no phone-a-friend options,” Butler said.
Nor had Butler expected the call: The opportunity was “not on my vision board, not on my bingo card, not in the wildest dreams of my ancestors,” she said to a standing ovation.
Nevertheless, Butler accepted Newsom’s appointment, making her the third Black female senator and the first openly-gay Black female senator in U.S. history.
Newly-appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler (D–Calif.) speaks at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit on Oct. 9, 2023.Stuart Isett—Fortune At the MPW Summit, the Broadsheet’s own Emma Hinchliffe asked Butler what those milestones and that “first” mean to her.
“I only know how to be a Black woman. I don’t know how to be anything else. And so I don’t know how to lead any other way,” she said. Still, she says she hopes to serve as an example for “other Black women, other lesbians, others who just want to live their life their own way.”
Butler, 44, is assuming the seat of Feinstein, who was 90 at the time of her death and had received calls to step down due to her age and failing health. On Monday, Butler addressed The Great Age Debate that hangs over Congress and the White House ahead of the 2024 elections. “I don’t think that we have a choice but to go in a younger direction,” she said. “We can’t be for representation and inclusion without representation and inclusion.”
Despite the historic nature of Butler’s appointment, her current Senate tenure will be short. She is serving out the remaining year of Feinstein’s term. A pressing question is whether the longtime labor leader will enter the race next November for a new senate term, a contest that was packed with big names and big bucks before Feinstein’s death.
“Is this a temporary job for you?” Emma asked.
“It is an early job for me. It is day six,” Butler said.
If Butler does run—and win—her daughter will get a second chance to witness her mother’s swearing in. The 9-year-old skipped the first in favor of camping. Not even Vice President Kamala Harris’s presence could change her mind, Butler recalled: “She said, ‘Tell her I said hi.'”
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
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