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Laphonza Butler will have served as a senator from California for only about 15 months. But she has been a close ally of Vice President Kamala Harris for 15 years.

This week, I spoke with Butler, whose long partnership with Harris — they first met when Butler was a Los Angeles-based union leader — gives her an intriguing perspective on why her party lost the presidential election and how it might rebuild.

Harris hasn’t said much publicly about why she lost. In Butler’s view, some of the fault starts with President Biden, who she believes broke what was a clear campaign promise by running for re-election. But just blaming Biden isn’t enough: Democrats, she says, must stop talking and start listening. Really listening.

Butler was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the U.S. Senate seat left open by the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein in September 2023. Because she decided not to run for re-election, this week is her last in the body: On Monday, Representative Adam Schiff will be sworn in as the state’s newest senator.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

LL: Why do you think Harris lost?

LB: The American people wanted a change. They wanted a candidate who they thought represented change. And I think that might simply be it.

Should Biden not have run?

President Biden said initially that he was going to be a transitional leader. I think that is the expectation that people had. So in that sense, I think that he probably would have been better to remain in that posture. We can’t deny the success of his presidency. When history looks back, his presidency will be one of the most impactful in my lifetime, for sure. But I think once you sort of create an expectation with people, there is the need to hold to that.

You were briefly president of EMILYs List, the organization that promotes Democratic female candidates. Do you still think a woman can win the presidency?

I do. The vice president came within 1.5 percent — and that was with a 100-day campaign. If anything, this election proves that a Democratic woman can win.

For a long time, many Democrats believed an Obama-era theory that, as the country became more diverse, their support among Black and brown voters would create a permanent majority for their party. Does this election put that idea to rest?

No voter can be taken for granted. No matter what race they are. Every human being wants to know, how is government working for them? It’s wonderful, the things that a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president were able to deliver in this Biden-Harris administration. But when people don’t know and/or can’t feel those impacts, and have been told for the last 10 years that they’ve got nothing else to lose, that idea sets in. Demographics is not destiny. We’ve got to continue to engage and do the work and offer something.

Democrats are heading into a period of rebuilding. What should that look like?

It’s going to have to start with a whole lot of authentic listening outside of Washington, D.C. Not just going somewhere to give a speech, but really listening to people and the lives that they are trying to navigate, the issues that they’re trying to manage and really trying to formulate a way of moving forward rooted in that. As opposed to focusing on the noise that can be the latest talking point.

Is there something that surprised you about the workings of the Senate?

Two things, really. One is the difference between the people that we see on TV and the kind of people that I get to build relationships with. I was surprised by the collegiality in that way. The other thing that surprised me was the pace. In one of my first meetings, Jeff Merkley took me to breakfast, and he said to me, “On average, it takes eight years to get legislation signed by the president.” And I was blown away by that. Like, that explains a lot.

You want to name any names of anyone who’s much nicer than they seem on television?

Josh Hawley. Lindsey Graham. Roger Wicker. Jim Moran. I would say Josh and Lindsey are probably the two from television that I have actually had a good time with.

Do you have a sense of what you want to do next?

I’m not sure. One of the reasons that I decided not to run for the Senate is the promise I made to my daughter to be present for her. She’s 10. She’s at a point where she needs me more, not less.

No one prepares you for the tweens. They’re a bit crazy.

They are. They’re crazy and cute and sweet and all over the place. My daughter’s an only child, so I think often about the loneliness, the isolation. So I don’t know yet what I want to do, but I want to make sure that whatever it is, it allows me to keep my promise to her.