: She was the longest-serving female senator in US history, a trailblazer for women in politics and a champion for social justice and gun control.
Fellow Californian and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi described her as a “pillar of public service,” whose career spanned from San Francisco’s City Hall in the 1970s – where she found the assassinated body of activist Harvey Milk, California’s first gay elected official – to the US Capitol in 1992.
“Dianne made her mark on everything from national security to the environment to protecting civil liberties. She’s made history in so many ways, and our country will benefit from her legacy for generations.”In a political career spanning more than five decades, Feinstein was a history maker and a glass-ceiling breaker.
“I found Harvey on his stomach. I tried to get a pulse and put my finger through a bullet hole. He was clearly dead,” she told her local newspaper at the time. As the oldest representative in Congress, Democrats urged Feinstein to resign after an extended absence from work following a shingles diagnosis in February.
“America is not past our prime – it’s just that our politicians are past theirs,” Hayley, 51, declared when she launched her candidacy for the presidency earlier this year.