Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female US senator in history, died Thursday night at her home in Washington. At 90 years old, she had struggled with bad health in recent years.
Feinstein was a former mayor of San Francisco, and a force in California politics for decades before becoming a US Senate in 1992.
Throughout her political career, she broke glass ceilings, first as California’s first woman sent to the US Senate; the first woman to sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee; the first female chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee; and the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Feinstein reflected on her experience as a woman in politics in a 2017 interview saying,
“Look, being a woman in our society even today is difficult,” and noting, “I know it in the political area.” She would later note in a statement the week she became the longest-serving woman in US history, “We went from two women senators when I ran for office in 1992 to 24 today – and I know that number will keep climbing.”
Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer teared up as he asked for a moment of silence this morning. Per Senate tradition, Feinstein’s desk was draped with a black cloth with a vase of white flowers atop it.
“Dianne Feinstein is not like the others. She’s in a class of her own,” Schumer said, later adding, “America is a better place because of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.”
