Senator Dianne Feinstein reportedly passed away at the age of 90.
The Democrat had experienced declining health and memory problems in recent years, which had made it challenging for her to work alone and spurred demands for her to resign, which she continuously resisted.
The senator later announced she would step back from politics at the end of her current term in 2024. Feinstein’s passing now leaves her influential Senate seat vacant, calling for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary replacement.
Feinstein, a native of San Francisco, paved the way for women in U.S. politics. In 1978, she was elected president of San Francisco’s board of supervisors, becoming the first woman to occupy the position after two failed mayoral campaigns. Later that year, after the killings of former board member Dan White and Harvey Milk, Feinstein was appointed interim mayor of the city.
Elected to the U.S. Senate after a special election in 1992, Feinstein has traditionally been seen as a political centrist in her party. This reputation helped Feinstein become very popular in the 1990s and 2000s, but much of that popularity waned as California’s political spectrum moved toward deeper blue in the years that followed.
Early in 2022, a few anonymous Democratic colleagues of Feinstein worried about her alleged decrease in mental sharpness. Feinstein defended her capacity to lead while admitting that her late husband Richard Blum’s cancer fight had been a “extremely painful and distracting” time for her.
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