Senator DianeFeinstein Dead at 90 After 30 Yrs

Dianne Feinstein, 90, Dies; Oldest Sitting Senator and Fixture of California Politics

She achieved remarkable political breakthroughs as a woman, becoming San Francisco’s first female mayor and the first woman elected to the Senate from California.

By Robert D. McFadden

Sept. 29, 2023

 

Dianne Feinstein, the grande dame of California Democrats who became the mayor of San Francisco after a horrific double assassination at City Hall in 1978 and then gained national stature as an influential voice in the United States Senate for more than 30 years, died on Thursday night. She was 90 and the Senate’s oldest member.

Her death was confirmed by family members. They did not say where she died.

Her death comes a few months after she announced that she intended to retire at the end of her term in January 2025. The news concluded a protracted guessing game as to whether she would seek another term on Capitol Hill at her advanced age, and it set off a scramble among California Democrats eager to succeed her.

Ms. Feinstein’s political life first gained traction during a volatile period in San Francisco and played out in tense Senate years, when an impeached President Bill Clinton was acquitted and the nation went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Throughout, she was an eloquent champion of civil rights and gun control who defended and denounced national security measures in the age of terrorism.

 

Feinstein addressed the Board of Supervisors on December 5, 1978, following their vote to elect her as Mayor following the assassination of George Moscone in November.

Feinstein addressed the Board of Supervisors on December 5, 1978, following their vote to elect her as Mayor following the assassination of George Moscone in November.Credit...Sal Veder/Associated Press