Dianne Feinstein, the oldest serving member of the US Senate who blazed a trail for women in American politics, has died. She was 90.
Feinstein’s death at home in Washington on Thursday night brought down the curtain on a storied career that included gun control advocacy – she spearheaded the first federal assault weapons ban – and documenting the CIA’s torture of foreign terrorism suspects.
Joe Biden led tributes, calling Feinstein a “pioneering American” and “true trailblazer”. The president said in a statement: “Dianne was tough, sharp, always prepared, and never pulled a punch, but she was also a kind and loyal friend, and that’s what Jill and I will miss the most.”
For Democrats, news of the death of the first woman to represent California in the US Senate, who was also the longest-serving female senator in US history, has significant political implications.
Faced with growing questions about her age and fitness, Feinstein was due to retire at the end of her term.
The race to succeed her in a safe Democratic seat has attracted high-profile candidates, Adam Schiff, a former House intelligence chair, squaring off against fellow members of Congress Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has promised to install a Black woman in any vacant seat.
Before entering national politics, Feinstein was the first woman to be mayor of San Francisco. She ran for the position twice before in 1978 the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, like Feinstein a member of the board of supervisors, saw her step into the top job.
Leaving office in 1988, Feinstein ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1990 before winning her Senate seat in 1992. She did so alongside Barbara Boxer, making California the first state to send two women to the Senate. Feinstein became the first woman to be a California senator because she was sworn in first, to complete an unfinished term. Feinstein was also the first Jewish female senator.
Feinstein had compiled a formidable record, notably piloting a federal assault weapons ban in 1994 and, as the first woman to head the influential Senate intelligence committee, investigating CIA torture after 9/11.
“The CIA’s actions are a stain on our values and our history,” Feinstein said, defending the release of a report that revealed CIA use of “coercive interrogation techniques in some cases amounting to torture” on at least 119 detainees.
But she sometimes drew opprobrium from the left. During Republican George W Bush’s presidency she backed the 2002 Iraq war resolution, only to later express regret. Feinstein defended surveillance programmes exposed in 2013 by the National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, a leak she called “an act of treason”.
In 2020 she attracted considerable criticism for her work leading Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, particularly in the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the third conservative forced on to the supreme court by Republicans under Donald Trump.
Feinstein was admitted to hospital for shingles earlier this year, returning to the Senate after more than two months’ absence. The senator and her aides resisted calls for her to retire with immediate effect.
Feinstein, a six-term senator, left her mark on Washington. In November 2022, she said it was “an incredible honor to become the longest-serving woman senator in our nation’s history, and I’m forever grateful to the people of California who sent me here to represent them.
“It has been a great pleasure to watch more and more women walk the halls of the Senate. We went from two women senators when I ran for office in 1992 to 24 today – and I know that number will keep climbing.”
Of changes in women’s roles in US public life, and challenges from the reactionary right, she said: “We have seen tremendous progress, but we still have work to do.
“When I came to the Senate, Roe v Wade [the 1973 supreme court ruling which guaranteed the right to abortion] was the law of the land, a fundamental right and a clear signal that women have the right to choose what is best for themselves. The supreme court recently overturned that right. And women continue to struggle to achieve pay equality – women still only make 84 cents on the dollar compared to men in the same position and often struggle to secure workplace rights.”
On Friday there were tributes to Feinstein across the nation. Barack Obama described her as “a trusted partner” in the fight to guarantee affordable healthcare and economic opportunity. “The best politicians get into public service because they care about this country and the people they represent,” the former president said. “That was certainly true of Dianne Feinstein, and all of us are better for it.”
Feinstein’s loss was felt keenly on Capitol Hill. During a speech on the Senate floor, the Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, came close to tears as he turned to look at his colleague’s empty desk.
His voice trembling, Schumer said: “Today, we grieve. We look at that desk and we know what we’ve lost. But we also give thanks. Thanks to someone so rarefied, so brave, so graceful a presence, that someone like that served in this chamber for so many years.”
He added: “As the nation mourns this tremendous loss, we’re comforted in knowing how many mountains Dianne moved, how many lives she impacted, how many glass ceilings she shattered along the way. America is a better place because of Senator Dianne Feinstein.”
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Dianne Feinstein was a force to be reckoned with. She was one of the most powerful voices in the Senate, and she blazed a trail for generations of women who followed her into elected office. I was so grateful to have her as my role model, my mentor, and a dear friend.”
Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in a statement: “For a long time, between 1994 and the tragedy in Newtown in 2012, Dianne was often a lonely but unwavering voice on the issue of gun violence. The modern anti-gun violence movement – now more powerful than the gun lobby – simply would not exist without Dianne’s moral leadership.”
Political activists also praised her legacy. Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive grassroots movement, said: “Dianne Feinstein was an icon of the Senate. In her decades of trailblazing public service, she broke ground and helped solidify what women could do in American politics again and again.
“During her time as California’s senator, she was a ground-breaking champion for gun safety, and a force accountability and transparency on the CIA’s use of torture, who expected better from our country in its darkest moments.”
