By Rebecca Shabad —
NBC News
California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein will retire from Congress at the end of 2024, after three decades in the Senate and more than 50 years in public office, she said in a statement Tuesday.
“I am announcing today that I will not be running for re-election in 2024, but I intend to accomplish as much as I can for California until the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein said.
Feinstein, 89, is currently the oldest serving member of the Upper House and her state's longest-serving senator, first elected to the Senate in 1992.
California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in October 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Patrick Semansky / AP
Feinstein had been under pressure for years from other Democrats in the state to make way for a younger generation of lawmakers to fill her seat.
She had also turned down the role in the new Congress of president pro tempore, which has traditionally been played by the most senior member of the majority party since the mid-20th century.
His retirement also clears his California Senate seat for the first time in decades.
Several House Democrats have announced their candidacy for the 2024 seat, including Reps. Kati Porter and Adam Schiff.
Rep. Barbara Lee also plans to announce her run for the Senate later this month, a family source confirmed to NBC News.
Feinstein has worked under five Presidential Administrations and alongside the two former presidents who also served with her in the Senate: Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
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In her statement Tuesday, she said she remains focused on passing laws to address gun violence, promote economic growth and preserve America's lands in her remaining time as a senator.
Feinstein said she is confident Democrats can achieve those goals based on her previous work.
“Even with a divided Congress, we can pass bills that will improve lives,” he said.
“Every one of us was sent here to solve problems.
That's what I've done for the last 30 years, and that's what I plan to do for the next two years."
In April 2022, Feinstein took issue with a news story citing several anonymous colleagues who were concerned about her mental incapacity to serve.
And until December, he kept saying publicly that he had no plans to retire.
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Feinstein's retirement caps a career focused on advocating for more restrictive gun measures, including defending then-President Bill Clinton's 1994 assault weapons ban and promoting restrictive laws. since the expiration of the ban in 2004.
As the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during former President Donald Trump's four years in the White House, Feinstein led the Democrats' line of attack against three Supreme Court nominees: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. .
Feinstein has also long been a strong supporter of advancing gay rights and same-sex marriage.
She was one of 14 senators who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 and hailed the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
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He chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee while Obama was in the White House and led a six-year review of the CIA's detention and interrogation program following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which led to legislation banning the use of these methods of torture.
Feinstein has been known for trying to find common ground with Republicans, which has sometimes earned him criticism from more progressive members of his party.
He parted ways with them on several issues, including his opposition to single-payer healthcare and the Green New Deal climate proposal, which he considered politically and fiscally unfeasible.
The Californian senator has been criticized on occasions for some of her positions.
She voted, for example, in favor of the resolution authorizing the Iraq war, but later said that she regretted that decision.
Before being elected senator in 1992, Feinstein was San Francisco's first female mayor and previously a member and chair of the city's Board of Supervisors.
She became mayor after the murders of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay elected office.
Feinstein was the first person to find Milk's body after being shot.