Photos: Sen. Dianne Feinstein through the years
Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been a political trailblazer since she was the first woman to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1970s.
Supervisor Dianne Feinstein holds a news conference at her San Francisco home, Sept. 17, 1971 to announce she is a candidate for mayor of San Francisco. Asked how she rated her chances against incumbent Joseph L. Alioto, she replied with one word: "Good." She told the news conference that leadership will be the campaign's key issue. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Dianne Feinstein, 38-year-old President of the City-County Board of Supervisors and candidate for mayor of San Francisco, prepares to cast her ballot in San Francisco on Nov. 2, 1971. The city’s registrar of voters has predicted a 75 percent turnout for the election in which Mayor Joseph L. Alioto seeks another term in office. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
Acting Mayor Dianne Feinstein with Police Chief Charles Gain at left, addresses the more than 25,000 people jammed around San Francisco's City Hall, Nov. 28, 1978 as city residents staged a spontaneous memorial service for slain officials Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Man at right is not identified. (AP Photo)
Dianne Feinstein elected to finish out the term of the late San Francisco Mayor George R. Moscone, addresses the Board of Supervisors following her election in San Francisco Monday, Dec. 5, 1978. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein is shown in her office, Dec. 11, 1978. (AP Photo)
Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein speaks in Washington, D.C., March 13, 1979. (AP Photo/John Duricka)
Rep. Abner J. Mikva (D-Ill.), and San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein hold a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, Jan. 25, 1979 to promote presidential and congressional action for strong handgun control. (AP Photo/John Duricka)
San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein carries a candle as she lead an estimated 15,000 marchers also carrying candles during a march in memory of slain Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco, Nov. 28, 1979. In the background is a sign that says "Gay Love is Gay Power." (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Mayor Dianne Feinstein leaves the voting booth in San Francisco, Dec. 11, 1979, after casting her ballot in the run-off election for mayor. The mayor faces Supervisor Quentin Kopp in the runoff as she attempts to become the first woman elected to the city's highest office. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer)
Diane Feinstein with Pope John Paul II in Vatican City, Sept. 8, 1982. (AP Photo)
Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang escorts San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein in the Zeguangge, Pavilion of Purple Light, where they met in Peking, Saturday, Nov. 10, 1984. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)
San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, right, and Mayor Richard Berkley of Kansas City, Mo. appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee at Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, August 16, 1982 which is holding hearings on antitrust problems which professional sports teams. (AP Photo/Scott Stewart)
Democratic Senate candidates Barbara Boxer, left, and Dianne Feinstein raise their arms in victory and wave to supporters at an election rally in San Francisco, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 1992. The two women claimed victory over their Republican male rivals, Bruce Herschensohn and Sen. John Seymour. (AP Photo/Alan Greth)
Former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, left, and Rep. Barbara Boxer raise their hands in victory during an appearance at the airport in Burbank, California, Wednesday, June 3, 1992. The two women won the Democratic nominations for the two California U.S. Senate seats. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Walter Mondale gestures to supporters as he is greeted by San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein outside her home as she arrived to attend a fund-raiser reception in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 1984. Mondale had been in San Francisco for an after noon rally where he picked up the endorsement of the Sierra Club. (AP Photo/Lana Harris)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reacts after the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission announced on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, June 25, 1993, that the shipyard in Long Beach in Calif., would remain open. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is at right. (AP Photo/Stephen R. Brown)
California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Roland J. Johnson, assistant director of the San Diego district for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, tour the San Ysidro Border Crossing in San Diego, Wednesday, July 7, 1993. Feinstein has proposed a $1.00 fee for crossing the border. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein gestures to friends on Thursday, Oct. 27, 1994 at the San Francisco Fire Department’s fireboat berth during a demonstration of equipment used to supply emergency drinking water to Rwandan refugee camps. Feinstein was instrumental in getting the equipment, credited with saving nearly 150,000 lives in Rwanda, shipped to the war-torn African nation. (AP Photo/Dwayne Newton)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., arrives at a Democratic election party in San Francisco, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., left, discusses re-introduction of legislation to expand a nationwide Amber Alert communication system to help find abducted children. Left to right are Feinstein, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sen. Orrin, R-Utah, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Feinstein said Tuesday they would try again to create a nationwide Amber Alert network to help track down suspected child abductors.(AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
** FILE ** In this July 17, 2008, file photo, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., left, President Bush, center, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., speak about the California wildfires in Redding, Calif. Firefighting costs have soared since a firestorm in Southern California in 2003. Schwarzenegger cited the expense as a factor when he deferred wages for state workers and laid off others recently as he contends with an overall budget shortfall. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., center, flanked by Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., left, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., right, take part in news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, to discuss Judiciary Committee action on legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. Feinstein is the lead sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. walks to a closed-door briefing with intelligence officials, Wednesday, June 4, 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. is surrounded by reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, as she leaves the Senate chamber after releasing a report on the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques at secret overseas facilities. Feinstein branded the findings a "stain on the nation's history." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attends a signing ceremony for a federal grant for the "regional connector transit corridor" in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. The light rail public transit system in Los Angeles is getting $670 million to solve one of its most vexing design deficiencies: Train riders who want to travel from one side of downtown and out the other must transfer twice. The "regional connector," as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls it, will tie together three existing light rail lines with a new tunnel and three new stations. Major construction should begin later this year, with an estimated cost of $1.4 billion. It will be opened in 2020. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., waves after speaking at a news conference about health care at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Friday, July 7, 2017, in San Francisco. Feinstein addressed how Medicaid cuts in the Senate Republican health care bill would devastate care for children. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Vice President Mike Pence administers a ceremonial Senate oath during a mock swearing-in ceremony to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., accompanied by her husband Richard Blum, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., walks at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Actress and activist Angelina Jolie, center, is joined from left by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at a news conference to announce a bipartisan update to the Violence Against Women Act, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., arrives for the Senate Democratic Caucus leadership election at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Feinstein's months-long absence from the Senate has become a growing problem for Democrats. Feinstein's vote is critical to confirm President Joe Biden's nominees to the federal courts, but Feinstein is away from the Senate indefinitely as she recovers from the shingles. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., left, talks with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., right, before a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., walks through a Senate corridor after telling her Democratic colleagues that she will not seek reelection in 2024, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's monthslong absence from the Senate has become a growing problem for Democrats. Here's a look at the politics surrounding her absence, and how Democrats are navigating the situation.
Dianne Feinstein isn't the first senator to take an extended medical absence or face questions about age or cognitive abilities. But the open discussion over the 89-year-old California Democrat's capacity to serve shows just how much the Senate has changed in recent years.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office says the 89-year-old Democrat is suffering from Ramsay Hunt syndrome after the longtime California senator returned from a more than two-month absence following weeks of questions about her declining health.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s ongoing medical struggles have raised a sensitive political question with no easy answer: Who would California Gov. Gavin Newsom pick to replace her if the seat becomes vacant?
Most California voters think that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s recent illness shows that she’s no longer fit to serve in the U.S. Senate, according to a new statewide poll.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the "Year of the Woman" and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the "Year of the Woman" and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.
Here's a look at what U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's death means for the Senate at a critical time on Capitol Hill.