In 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Laphonza Butler to a 12-year term as a regent of the University of California. She resigned from her role as regent in 2021 and was named the third president of EMILY's List. She was the first black woman and first mother to lead the organization.
Bulter & her family moved to Maryland from California in 2021 when she assumed the presidency of EMILY's List, while continuing to own a home in View Park, California in Los Angeles County. In October 2023, she officially re-domiciled to that home and re-registered to vote in California when Governor Newsom appointed her to the Senate upon the death of Dianne Feinstein.
The United States Constitution only requires that senators be "inhabitants" of the state that they represent.