Dianne Feinstein, Trailblazer and Longest-Serving Woman Senator in History, Announces She Will Not Run for Re-Election

Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving woman senator in history and the first woman to serve as a U.S. senator for the state of California, has announced that she will not be running for re-election at the end of her current term.

Feinstein began her political career in 1969 when she became the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She then won election as San Francisco mayor the following year, becoming the first woman to win a mayoral election in the city. She served two four-year terms as mayor.

In 1992, Feinstein was elected to the Senate, becoming the first-ever female member of the Judiciary Committee. Her health and mental acuity had visibly deteriorated in 2023, and she was forced to spend much of the first months of the year away from the Senate due to severe medical issues.

Feinstein was the Senate’s longest ever serving woman and the body’s oldest member. Over her long career, she broke the glass ceiling time and time again, becoming the first woman mayor of San Francisco in 1978 and the first-ever female member of the Judiciary Committee in 1992.

Feinstein has been a trailblazer throughout her career, and her announcement that she will not be running for re-election at the end of her current term marks the end of an era. Her legacy of breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations of women in politics will live on.