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Dianne Feinstein
Wikipedia (en)
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( FYNE-styne; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933 – September 28, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California for 31 years, from 1992 until her death in 2023. Since 1993, she had been the state's senior senator. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.A San Francisco native, Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955. She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and served as the board's first female president in 1978, during which time the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk drew national attention. Feinstein succeeded Moscone as mayor and became the first woman to serve in that position. During her tenure, she led the renovation of the city's cable car system and oversaw the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Despite a recall attempt in 1983, Feinstein was a popular mayor and was named the most effective mayor in the country by City & State in 1987.After losing a race for governor in 1990, Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 1992 special election. In November 1992, she became California's first female U.S. senator; shortly after, she became the state's senior senator after Alan Cranston retired in January 1993. Feinstein has been reelected five times. In the 2012 election, she received 7.86 million votes, the most popular votes received by any U.S. Senate candidate in history.Feinstein authored the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. She was the first woman to have chaired the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to have presided over a U.S. presidential inauguration. Feinstein chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2009 to 2015 and was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2017 to 2021. Aged 90, she was the oldest sitting U.S. senator and member of Congress. She was also the longest-serving U.S. senator from California, the longest-tenured female senator in history, and the senior Democratic member of the Senate. In February 2023, Feinstein announced she would not seek reelection in 2024. During her final years in office, as she grew older and her health declined, there were concerns about her mental acuity and fitness to serve.Feinstein died on September 28, 2023, at the age of 90, as a sitting United States senior senator from the state of California. She is the 302nd senator to have died while serving in office, and the first to do so since John McCain.
