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Acting with dispatch, Gov. Gavin Newsom this week appointed Laphonza Butler, a veteran labor organizer and political strategist, to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate.The move fulfilled a promise Newsom made to choose a Black woman, filling a notable void. With Vice President Kamala Harris’ exit, there were no Black women among the 100 members of the august chamber. In fact, before Butler, there had been only two Black women senators in the history of the country. Butler, 44, was sworn into office Tuesday by Harris, a friend and former political client. She is the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color to serve in the Senate. Times columnists Erika D. Smith, Anita Chabria and Mark Z. Barabak discussed the history-making selection, speculation about Butler’s future and the p...

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) was ousted as speaker Tuesday night, plunging Congress into confusion over who would lead the GOP in the House of Representatives. It remained unclear Wednesday morning who would fill that role, as multiple Republicans jumped into the candidate pool. Immediately after the vote to push McCarthy out, Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) ascended to temporarily fill the role as speaker pro tempore. Under House rules, McHenry will serve until the election of the next House speaker or speaker pro tempore. McHenry could make the case to run for the position permanently, though he has previously indicated he would not want to be speaker. He currently serves as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.The House is expected to hold a candidate forum Tuesday...

BAKERSFIELD —  Minutes before the vote that cost California’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy his job as speaker of the House, three Republican voters lunching in his hometown cursed the scorched-earth politics in Washington.The conservative women said McCarthy had been left with two bad choices in the days before his ouster: Risk a revolt from the hard right and cut a deal with Democrats to pass a funding bill, or acquiesce to the hard-liners and shut down the federal government, wrecking the economy.Ultimately, they thought, McCarthy did the right thing — and paid the price on Tuesday.“He was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t,” said Leslie Walters, a real estate agent and registered Republican, as she finished eating with two friends on the patio of the 24th Street Cafe, a 1950s-style joint in d...

Travis Gienger stood on the stage smiling and dressed in an orange jacket as an enormous blob of a pumpkin lay flat on a scale in front of him. Officials had just given the ginormous gourd the greenlight to be weighed Monday at the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, Calif., considered the Super Bowl of competitive pumpkin-growing.“Wow!” an announcer said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. That’s amazing.”Gienger, of Anoka, Minn., shifted on his feet. Two growers had just broken a California record with their 2,497-pound pumpkin, and Gienger remembers hoping he could just squeeze by and win. The announcer began hyping up the crowd.“Oh, my god, here we go!” the announcer said. Gienger’s pumpkin tipped the scales at 2,749 pounds, and utter pandemonium broke out. Gi...