OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Eighty-nine-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose political career in Washington has spanned three decades, is not likely to run again for reelection in 2024, according to those in the know, which has sparked a wave of maneuvering among California Democrats to run for her seat.
As reported by Breitbart News, the speculation that Feinstein will finally call it quits is being fueled by growing concerns over her mental status, as she has been demonstrating signs of forgetfulness of late. As an example, she said last month that she hadn’t “thought about” serving in the Senate president pro tempore role, telling reporters that she would “let [them] know when” she would consider doing so. However, in a statement to the Washington Post in October, she dismissed the notion completely.
“Feinstein recently stated that she intends to finish her term but is weighing retiring at its conclusion,” Breitbart News reported, adding: “If she does call it a career, a number of Democrats will likely vie for the coveted seat in what would likely be a highly contentious and expensive primary and general election.”
California’s 2024 U.S. Senate race poses to be highly contentious among Democrats if 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) decides to retire after three decades in office, as many expect her to do. https://t.co/6OskFFJHIh
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 28, 2022
Last month, Darry Sragow, a Democrat strategist, told the Los Angeles Times that the battle for Feinstein’s seat among the party would be a “real free-for-all.”
“There are a lot of very ambitious players in California who would give anything to have one of those two seats,” he said. “So, yeah, there would be a lot of contenders.”
One of them, apparently, is Rep. Adam Schiff, the current chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who is at risk of being booted off by Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who is favored to replace yet another Californian, Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker.
“If Senator Feinstein retires, then I will give it very serious consideration. You know, at this point, I think we’re waiting to see what Senator Feinstein has to say about her plans, but yes, it is something I’m giving serious consideration to,” he told KTTA, adding that he is receiving “a lot of encouragement to run for the Senate from people in California and colleagues here in Congress.”
Other names being mentioned as potentially running for Feinstein’s seat include Reps. Ro Khanna and Katie Porter, while Rep. Barbara Lee is using the holidays to decide her future.
Khanna criticized Feinstein when she decided to run for re-election in 2018 and urged other Democrats to primary her.
“She hasn’t been a strong advocate on privacy, she hasn’t been strong on civil liberties, she hasn’t been strong in terms of standing up to our foreign policy interventions around the world,” he said at the time.
In April, a report noted that some Senate Democrats were becoming increasingly concerned about Feinstein’s mental capacities.
“When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they’d had with her many times over the last 15 years,” The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“Instead, the lawmaker said, they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted several hours,” the paper added.
“Rather than delve into policy, Feinstein, 88, repeated the same small-talk questions, like asking the lawmaker what mattered to voters in their district, they said, with no apparent recognition the two had already had a similar conversation,” said the Chronicle.
Most lawmakers appear content to serve out their lives in Congress rather than do a stint and return home, allowing others to serve for a change. Feinstein, quite obviously, is one of them.
Now do Biden 🤨
Four insiders say Senator Diane Feinstein’s memory is rapidly deteriorating. https://t.co/uelcFZicTV
— Kitchen Table Politics (@TheKTofPolitics) April 14, 2022
But in recent months, her colleagues have become concerned that she is suffering major cognitive decline and is no longer really fit to serve.
“Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress told The Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory is rapidly deteriorating. They said it appears she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California,” the Chronicle said in a story that is headlined, “Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is now mentally unfit to serve, citing recent interactions.”
