Dianne Feinstein, California’s longest-serving senator, dies at 90

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has died at age 90, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News on Friday.

Feinstein, a Democrat, was the oldest member of the Senate. She had the longest tenure of any woman in the chamber, and any senator from California.

Her death ends a boundary-pushing political career that spanned more than half a century, which was studded with major legislative achievements on issues including gun control and the environment.

In Feinstein’s final years, she had increasingly visible health and memory issues, and a conflict with her fellow Democrats over her refusal to step down.

She had planned to retire at the end of her current term in 2024.

Feinstein’s death leaves vacant her powerful Senate seat, requiring Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary successor.

“It’s a very, very sad day and I’ll be speaking on the floor shortly,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told NBC.

A San Francisco native, Feinstein cleared a path for women in politics as she rose the ranks of leadership. After two failed bids for mayor, she was elected president of San Francisco’s board of supervisors in 1978, becoming the first woman to hold the title.

Feinstein was made acting mayor of the city later that year, after then-Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, her colleague on the board of supervisors, were assassinated by Dan White, a former member of the same board.

In later interviews, Feinstein recalled finding Milk’s body and searching for a pulse by putting her finger in a bullet hole.

Feinstein was the first to announce the murders to the press. She was appointed mayor a week later, again becoming the first woman elevated to the office.

The tragedy had the side effect of jumpstarting Feinstein’s political career, but the trauma of the day stuck with her even decades later. 

“I never really talk about this,” Feinstein said with a sigh when asked about the murders in a CNN interview in 2017.