Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California announced Tuesday that she’s going to retire at the top of her current term, establishing a significant Democratic competition for her coveted seat.
Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest sitting U.S. senator and the longest-serving senator from her state, said she intends to “accomplish as much for California as I can through the top of next 12 months when my term ends.”
“Even with a divided Congress, we are able to still pass bills that may improve lives,” Feinstein said in an announcement.
The fight for the open Senate seat within the powerful, reliably blue state of California guarantees to be one of the vital competitive — and expensive — races of the 2024 election cycle.
While Feinstein’s announcement officially puts her seat in play for the 2024 election cycle, multiple California Democrats had already launched Senate campaigns weeks earlier.
Rep. Katie Porter was first out of the gate, announcing her Senate bid on Jan. 10 and touting an endorsement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., soon after.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the previous chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, threw his hat within the ring late last month.
Those candidates have projected deference toward Feinstein, whilst they entered the race to succeed her prior to the announcement of her widely anticipated retirement.
“She has a lot to show all of us,” Porter said of Feinstein last month, adding that she had tried to achieve out to the senator before launching her Senate campaign.
Former House Speaker and current Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., earlier this month issued a certified endorsement of Schiff that heaped praise on Feinstein and vowed to back her if she decided to run again.
More California Democrats, including Reps. Barbara Lee and Ro Khanna, are expected to announce their Senate campaign plans soon.
Feinstein’s profession as a a political leader got a morbid jumpstart in 1978, when she became acting mayor of San Francisco following the assassination of the town’s then-mayor, George Moscone, and Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk. She was appointed soon after, becoming San Francisco’s first female mayor.
After a failed gubernatorial bid, Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 1992. She was reelected in 1994 to the primary of 5 full terms. In 2021, she became California’s longest-serving senator. She became the longest-serving woman in U.S. Senate history on in November.
Feinstein’s political profession is distinguished with plenty of firsts for ladies: The primary female mayor of San Francisco, the primary woman to chair the Senate Rules and Intelligence committees, the primary woman to oversee a presidential inauguration.
Her retirement announcement on Tuesday afternoon referenced plenty of her legislative accomplishments, starting from the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban to her oversight of the CIA’s interrogation policies, which led to the passage of anti-torture laws.
In her final stretch within the Senate, Feinstein vowed to proceed working on issues akin to California’s homelessness crisis and its struggles with droughts and wildfires, in addition to health-care access
“Congress has enacted laws on all of those topics over the past several years, but more must be done – and I’ll proceed these efforts,” she said within the statement.
She vowed to proceed her fight against gun violence, to preserve “our pristine lands” and promote economic growth, adding that she would use her position on the powerful appropriations committee to make sure the state received its fair proportion of federal funding.
“Each of us was sent here to unravel problems,” she said. “That is what I’ve done for the last 30 years, and that is what I plan to do for the subsequent two years. My due to the people of California for allowing me to serve them.”
