After months of deteriorating health, Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female US senator in history with three decades in the Senate, passed away. 90 years old.
Democratic senator Feinstein passed away Thursday night at her home in Washington, according to a statement from her office.
Her passing gives California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom the authority to name a lawmaker to complete Feinstein’s remaining term, preserving the party’s control in the house until early January 2025. In the event that Feinstein was to resign, Newsom has publicly committed to appointing a Black woman. He also said earlier this month on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would make an “interim appointment” that wouldn’t include any of the candidates running for the position in the upcoming election.
Although Senate Democrats still hold a majority without Feinstein, federal funding is about to expire, and Congress is at a standstill over how to prevent a government shutdown.
After winning her first election to the US Senate in 1992, Feinstein—a former mayor of San Francisco—became a prominent figure in California politics for many years and the face of the Democratic Party on a national scale. Her impact was felt heavily in some of Capitol Hill’s most important works in recent history, including the since-expired federal assault weapons prohibition in 1994 and the 2014 CIA torture report. Throughout her political career, she smashed a number of glass ceilings. She also has a lengthy history of influence on the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
As she became older, rumors about Feinstein’s health grew, and the California Democrat was well-known among older politicians whose decisions to hold onto their seats prompted criticism, particularly in an era of razor-thin party majorities in Congress.
When Feinstein returned to Capitol Hill three months after being hospitalized for shingles in February, it was discovered that she had experienced numerous complications during her recovery, which included Ramsay Hunt syndrome and encephalitis. This caused Democrats to complain that Feinstein’s absence from the Senate caused a delay in the confirmation of Democratic-appointed judicial nominees. August saw her briefly hospitalized after a fall.
Feinstein, who at the time of her death was the senior senator, was also questioned about her mental capacity and leadership skills. “The real question is whether I’m still an effective representative for 40 million Californians,” she responded, dismissing the worries. “And the record shows that I am.”
However, prior to Feinstein announcing her plans, several Democrats declared their candidacies for her seat due to widespread rumors that she would retire rather than run for reelection in 2024. She announced on CNN in February that she would not seek reelection, saying, “The time has come.”
On Friday, Feinstein’s coworkers recalled her with admiration.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois recognized her as “one of the great ones” while Rep. Nancy Pelosi praised her fellow Californian as a “champion for the Golden State.” In his opening remarks to reporters on Friday morning, California-based Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy praised Feinstein as a woman who “blazed a trail for women.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, requested a moment of quiet after making impassioned remarks on the Senate floor. Feinstein’s desk was covered in a black cloth as is customary in the Senate, and a vase of white flowers was placed atop it.
Dianne Feinstein stands out from the crowd. She’s in a league of her own,” Schumer added, later adding, “Sen. Dianne Feinstein has made America a better place.”
And President Joe Biden, who has worked with Feinstein for over 15 years, referred to her as a “cherished friend.”
Native of San Francisco and pioneer
Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955 after being born in San Francisco in 1933. Following his time as a supervisor for San Francisco County, Feinstein was elected mayor of the city in 1978 after the murders of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, the first openly gay politician from California to hold office.
Feinstein hardly ever brought up the day that Moscone and Milk were shot, but in a 2017 interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, she spoke openly about the horrific events.
Dan White, the assassin, had been a friend and coworker of Feinstein when she served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
When the door to the office opened and he entered, I called out, “Dan?”
Feinstein recalled, “I heard the doors slam, I heard the shots, and I smelled the cordite.”
Feinstein was the one who made the public aware of the double murder. She was later sworn in as San Francisco’s first female mayor.
Throughout her political career, she accomplished several firsts in history.
She was the first female chair of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when she became mayor in 1978, breaking another glass ceiling in the process.
The first woman from California to be elected to the US Senate achieved numerous other firsts in Washington. She was the first woman to chair the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. She was also the first woman to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Feinstein was a member of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee as well, and from 2017 to 2021 she served as the committee’s ranking member. She was set to become the Senate’s president pro tempore in November 2022, which would have put her third in line for the President. However, she decided against running because of the recent passing of her husband.
In an interview with Bash in 2017, Feinstein discussed her experiences as a woman in politics, saying, “Look, being a woman in our society today as well is difficult,” adding, “I know it in the political area.” In a statement the week she became the longest-serving senator in US history, she would later say, “We went from two women senators back when I ran for office in 1992 to 24 today – and I know that number will keep climbing.”
In November 2022, Feinstein said, “It has been a real delight to watch more and more women stroll the halls of the Senate.
Led the push to investigate the torture program and gun control
Feinstein was a proud citizen of one of the most well-known liberal communities in the nation, but over the course of her career in the Senate, she developed a reputation as someone eager to collaborate with Republicans, which occasionally infuriated progressives and drew their ire.
“I genuinely think that when you have a very diverse population, the ideal location to operate something is in the center of the political spectrum. We are not all one people in America; we are a varied nation. We are many various races, faiths, ages, degrees of education, everything,” she told CNN in 2017.
According to Feinstein’s Senate office biography, her noteworthy accomplishments include “the enactment of the federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, a law which prohibited the sale, manufacture, and import of military-style assault weapons” (the ban has since expired). She is also credited with the 2014 torture report, a thorough “six-year review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program,” which made many details from the George W. Bush administration’s pre-trial detention program
When Feinstein was played by actress Annette Bening in the 2019 movie “The Report,” which focused on the CIA’s use of torture after the September 11 attacks and the attempt to make those methods public, Feinstein’s prominent Senate career made its influence on pop culture.
After receiving harsh criticism from liberal activists for how she handled the hearings for then-President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Feinstein announced in November 2020 that she would leave her position as the top Democratic on the Senate Judiciary Committee the following year.
Even though Democratic senators in the Republican-controlled Senate were unable to stop Barrett’s nomination on their own, liberal activists were outraged when Feinstein undermined their constant attempts to paint the selection process as being unfair when she praised Republican Lindsey Graham, the then-chairman of the judiciary committee.
At the time, Feinstein declared that she would keep her position as a senior Democrat on the Judiciary, Intelligence, Appropriations, Rules, and Administration panels, where she would focus on issues including immigration, criminal justice, and gun safety.