Senator Dianne Feinstein

Dianne Feinstein was born in San Francisco in 1933 and graduated from Stanford University in 1955. She started her career in public service as a member of the California Women's Board of Terms and Parole in 1960. After she joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1970. In 1978 she discovered the body of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay supervisor in San Francisco. Milk was killed in a shooting by former supervisor Dan White at City Hall that also killed the mayor. She took over as Mayor of San Francisco after that event. Feinstein became the first female senator from California in 1992 and is the oldest member in the chamber. Elected for her sixth term in 2018, she will remain in the Senate until 2025 when she is 92 years old.

Her experience during the Milk shooting led to her support for stricter gun laws. Feinstein has introduced bills that restricted the manufacturing and sale of military-style assault weapons and the Gun-Free Schools Act. In January of 2019, she introduced an updated assault weapon ban. Other issues that Feinstein has championed in the Senate are the environment and criminal justice. She authored the California Desert Protection and the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007 to those effects.  As part of the Intelligence Committee, she released a summary of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation on suspected terrorists after 9/11.

Senator Feinstein brought her constituent Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegations of sexual assault to the Senate confirmation hearings. As a Democratic ranking member of the Senate judiciary committee, she serves an important role in protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump Administration.