On Thursday, September 28, 2023, Senator Diane Feinstein passed away at the age of 90 years old. She had held the seat of Senator of California since 1992. She was the oldest senator at the time of her death.
The office of Diane Feinstein announced the sad news earlier today on X (formerly Twitter). The statement they released was written by Feinstein’s chief of staff, James Sauls. The statement explains, “Sadly, Senator Feinstein passed away last night at her home in Washington, D.C. Her passing is a great loss for so many, from those who loved and cared about her to the people of California that she dedicated her life to serving.”
In the statement, Sauls praised Feinstein for never being one who “backed away from a fight” and for being “willing to work with anyone, even those she disagreed with.”
Sauls concluded the statement by writing, “There is much to say about who she was and what she did, but for now, we are going to grieve the passing of our beloved boss, mentor and friend.”
While Sauls didn’t want to go into details about Feinstein’s long list of accomplishments, we will touch on several of them. Not only was she the oldest member of Congress, but she was also the longest-serving female senator in all of U.S. history.
Prior to her career as a senator, she held multiple other positions of power in California. After graduating from Stanford University in 1955, she went on to serve as the first ever female president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Afterwards, she ended up becoming mayor of San Francisco and remained mayor from 1978 to 1988.
After leaving the mayor’s office, her next goal was to become governor, but that didn’t work out. Instead, in 1992, she was elected to the U.S. Senate.
In February 2023, Feinstein announced that she would not be running for reelection as senator in 2024. Rumors began to circulate about her health, speculating that she was having trouble with her memory, but she denied the rumors.
One month later, Feinstein announced that she had been hospitalized with shingles and needed to take a leave from the Senate while she recovered. This summer, she returned to D.C., but she was in a wheelchair. She seemed not to remember her absence from the Senate when she told a reporter, “I’ve been here. I’ve been voting.”
Until her seat is up for reelection, it is up to California Governor Gavin Newsom to appoint someone to serve the remainder of her term in the Senate.
Watch the video below to learn more about Feinstein’s life, career and long list of accomplishments.
Rest in peace.
