Laphonza Butler spoke to Politico Playbook about her 13-month tenure as an appointed senator from California:

I don’t believe Gov. Newsom was elected to be the governor of the resistance. I don’t believe Sen.-elect Schiff was elected to be the senator-elect of of the resistance. I hope that the lesson from any of this is a reminder for all of us that we are public servants, that we are here to serve the people who send us. And the governor of California has to be the governor of all of California. I went to the United States Senate overnight, and one of the first pieces of work that I did was with Chuck Grassley. One of the biggest pieces of legislation that I hope to be able to bring to a close is with Senator Katie Britt, introducing mental health legislation with Lisa Murkowski, getting Susan Collins to vote for one of my judges when Joe Manchin didn’t…I am acknowledging that there is an inherent tension and that as elected officials, as public servants, we don’t get to choose either/or. That what we must choose is both/and. There are values that are essential to the function of our democracy. And there are challenges that California farmers and Iowa farmers and Kansas and Oklahoma farmers face too. So let’s figure out a way how to address those things without compromising the values that we have. To offer that there is that we must choose one or the other, I just think it’s a false choice