Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced on Tuesday she will not run for reelection in 2024, but will complete her existing term.
“I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein wrote in a Twitter post. “Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives.”
Her announcement is not all that surprising. The 89-year-old trailblazing senator has faced some questions around her cognitive health recently, raising speculation about a possible upcoming retirement.
In anticipation, announcements of Senate bids for her seat have been pouring in from California Democrats in the past couple of weeks.
Early last month, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) launched a Senate campaign for Feinstein’s seat. Her announcement was surprising as it came before any official announcement from the longtime senator.
Just a day later, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) told lawmakers she is running for Senate in a closed-door Congressional Black Caucus meeting. She hasn’t made an official announcement for her bid but one is expected soon.
Similarly, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has indicated he will consider a bid “over the next few months.”
And in late January, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced he will also be running for Senate in 2024. Within a matter of days, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she would support Schiff in his bid if Feinstein decided to retire next year.
It was an important endorsement for Schiff in what is expected to be a crowded and fiercely contested Senate race.
Feinstein was first elected to the US Senate in 1992. During her 30 plus years in the chamber, she fought for gun control, civil rights, and abortion access — including passing the 1994 federal assault weapons ban and chairing the committee that produced the 2014 CIA torture report.
Feinstein’s announcement emphasized she will stay committed to passing crucial legislation during her final year in office.
“I also remain focused on passing commonsense legislation to fight the epidemic of gun violence, preserving our pristine lands and promoting economic growth – especially to position California for what I believe will be the century of the Pacific,” Feinstein wrote. “And I will use my seniority on the Appropriations Committee to ensure California gets its fair share of funding.”
The temptation to snark something like “there’s a fuckin’ surprise” is huge. But the truth is, my heart isn’t in it. A lot of people spent a lot of time being angry at her over things she’s terrible on and never gave her due credit for the things she’s great on, because the Internet can’t do shades of grey. Especially when it’s a woman.
That seems like a pretty early announcement. But then, Pat Toomey announced not running on Oct 5 2020, which is even earlier.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Onward to defeating whatever crazy kook the CA GOP foists on the race.
Thank for your service, we’ll take it from here.
(Also resisting the urge to snark about DiFi Inc.)
Feinstein has always worked to do her best for the people in CA. You might not have agreed on all of her policy positions, but that’s normal, and used to be expected…it’s sad how absolute things have become. Here she has served us again, retiring pretty much guarantees that the seat will remain Democratic, and we’ll have an excellent senator no matter who wins.
Hopefully she is able to enjoy her retirement, though if the rumors of her dementia are true that’s not very likely unfortunately.