As the three Democrats vying to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein darted around the California Democratic Convention this weekend courting potential supporters, a quieter debate was unfolding among the party’s delegates about whether their state’s senior senator should serve out the remainder of her term, which ends in early 2025.
Feinstein, 89, is now back in Washington casting the key Democratic vote on the Judiciary Committee that was needed to advance President Biden’s judicial nominees. But after her extended absence from the Capitol because of a shingles diagnosis, her health status is still stirring consternation among her supporters and detractors alike.
In more than two dozen interviews, Democratic delegates gathered in Los Angeles were deeply divided about whether Feinstein should stay in her role or step down. Many said they feared that congressional Republicans could block a replacement for her on the Judiciary Committee if she left the Senate before the end of her term. Others expressed uncertainty about whom California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) would appoint to replace her — he pledged in 2021 to appoint a Black woman if the seat became vacant — and concern that his decision could create turmoil in the 2024 race for Feinstein’s seat among Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam B. Schiff.
But beneath those complex political dynamics, there is also palpable frustration and doubt about Feinstein’s ability to adequately represent a state of 39 million people.
“She’s really lost her voice,” said Rosemarie Willimann, an 80-year-old delegate from Mono County who said she has admired Feinstein’s “dynamism” since her days as San Francisco’s mayor. “I think she’s just following orders as best she can at this point. She’s not herself.”
Tracy McCreery, a 53-year-old nurse from Sacramento, said that she is “absolutely not an ageist,” but that she has been worried watching Feinstein be pushed around the Capitol in a wheelchair. Pictures show Feinstein in a visibly weakened condition after her office confirmed that she had suffered more severe health complications from the shingles diagnosis than were previously disclosed. McCreery said she believes Feinstein must “make her health the priority” and step down.
“I just think it’s important for her to go ahead and take care of herself — and to know we’ve got this,” said McCreery, who has not decided whom she will support to replace her. “As leaders, we raise other people up. We leave a legacy. And I think she’s done a fantastic job with that and there’s plenty of people to step in for her.”
The senator, who has served in that role since 1992, has given no indication that she intends to resign before the end of her term and emphasized in a recent statement that she is continuing to work and “get results for California.”
But a new poll from the University of California at Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times shows that confidence in her ability to do so among California voters is falling. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters said they believe she is no longer fit to serve because of her illness — a view shared by the same portion of Democratic voters. Feinstein’s favorability rating has plunged since she was reelected in 2018, with only 29 percent holding a favorable view of her now.
Feinstein’s allies — most notably former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Franciscan whose career was celebrated at this weekend’s convention — have vociferously pushed back on the notion that Feinstein should retire before she is ready. Pelosi suggested in April that sexism is a factor in the calls for her to step down and that male officeholders have not been subjected to the same standard.
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton recently told Time magazine that she did not think Feinstein should resign, because “Republicans will not agree to add someone else to the Judiciary Committee if she retires.”
Clinton said she did not know whether Feinstein planned to resign, but hoped she would not. “Because if we’re going to get judges confirmed, which is one of the most important continuing obligations that we have, then we cannot afford to have her seat vacant,” Clinton said in an interview with Time.
The charges of sexism resonate deeply with Marsha Conant, a delegate from Fresno who pointed to a long list of male politicians with health problems who have not faced the same firestorm of controversy over whether they should stay or go.
“I think perhaps the people who are younger don’t realize the contributions that [Feinstein] has made for the last 50 years, not only for gun control, but for women,” Conant said. “It’s extraordinary, her career, and I think that’s getting minimized and that makes me angry.”
Conant added that Newsom’s pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat were to become vacant could create an unfair advantage in the Senate race — because there would be significant pressure on him to appoint Lee, who was a top potential candidate for the seat that Kamala D. Harris vacated in 2021 when she became vice president. (Newsom chose then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla instead).
“It’s kind of a no-win situation,” Conant said. “The best we can hope for at this time is that [Feinstein] has the strength and help to carry through until someone is elected.”
Nicole Lim, a delegate from Santa Rosa who is part of the party’s Native American caucus, said that “Republicans have engaged in some very strange and dangerous politics.”
“If having [Feinstein] in that position maintains the democracy in this country then she needs to stay the course until it’s safe for her to act otherwise,” Lim said.
The opinions of delegates about Feinstein were often influenced by the candidates whom they are leaning toward in the highly competitive Senate race, because of the worries that a Newsom appointment would heavily affect the race.
Melody Davis, a 71-year-old delegate from Oakland, argued that Feinstein should step down and that Newsom should fulfill his promise by appointing Lee to the position. She pointed to Pelosi’s backing of Schiff as “a conflict of interest.” Pelosi’s eldest daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda, has been accompanying Feinstein throughout her illness in San Francisco and now back at the Capitol. The two have been friends for decades, according to Feinstein’s office.
“They have a very tough decision to make with Dianne Feinstein, but it’s really shameful that they won’t put in Barbara Lee for now,” Davis said. “I think the reason they are not doing it is because she’s African American.”
But supporters of Schiff and Porter often said they were simply hesitant to put so much power in Newsom’s hands.
Gillian Parrillo, a 75-year-old delegate from Lakeport who supports Porter, said the uncertainties of both the appointment process and how Senate Republicans would handle committee assignments if a new senator from California were named mean that Feinstein “needs to stay exactly where she is.”
“I’d rather that she’s there and she’s voting and we have a vote,” Parrillo said.
And Sissa Harris, a 70-year-old delegate from Clear Lake, said the decision about the state’s next senator should be determined by the voters of California: “We should get to have a say in who we send to Washington.”