The Race to Replace America’s Oldest Lawmaker Is Officially On

The nearly 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein hasn’t said whether she’ll seek reelection to the U.S. Senate. The next generation isn’t waiting to find out: Rep. Katie Porter has announced her bid for Feinstein’s seat. And she certainly won’t be alone in doing so as other high-profile California Democrats, like Rep. Ro Khanna, publicly mull a run.

“Right now California is facing severe storms and floods, and my district is facing historic weather conditions,” Khanna tells Rolling Stone. “My focus is on that. In the next few months, I will make a decision.”

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Porter, an Elizabeth Warren protégé and two-term lawmaker from Orange County, made her widely anticipated plans official on Tuesday morning. In her campaign launch video, the progressive firebrand touts her reputation for holding executives from Wall Street, Big Pharma, and the energy industry accountable from her perch on House Financial Services and Oversight Committees. The announcement makes no mention of Feinstein, stating simply: “It’s time for new leadership in the U.S. Senate.”

The 2024 U.S. Senate race in California is widely viewed as a once-in-a-generation chance for the state’s glut of Democratic talent to move up the ranks, since Feinstein has held the federal office for more than three decades. Rep. Adam Schiff, who led inquiries into Donald Trump as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has publicly said he’s exploring a run. Rep. Barbara Lee, the long-serving Oakland-based lawmaker, spent the holidays discussing a potential campaign with her family, Politico reported. Khanna, meanwhile, has been urged into the race by alumni of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, for which Khanna served as a chair.

Porter, renown for wielding a whiteboard scribbled with data as she grills witnesses in House hearings, entered the race with receipts: A poll of California voters from November 2022 that shows her tied with Schiff and ahead of both Khanna and Lee in a would-be primary matchup.

Feinstein, who turns 90 in June, has not made her reelection intentions known, though reports of cognitive decline have fueled speculation she will not. Fellow members of the California congressional delegation have said that Feinstein suffers from significant memory loss, often repeating herself and requiring reintroductions to colleagues she’s known for years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last April. She also fails to recall the details from meetings she attends and “at times walks around in a state of befuddlement,” according to a later New York Times story.

Feinstein shocked Democrats during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett when Feinstein embraced then-chairman Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S-C.) at the conclusion of the proceedings. “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” Feinstein said, a move that drew sharp criticism for being out of touch with the present political realities — or too incognizant to recognize the impropriety.

Feinstein has said she intends to serve her current terms all the way through, a move that, if she follows through, would deny California Gov. Gavin Newsom from naming a successor.

“Everyone is of course welcome to throw their hat in the ring, and I will make an announcement concerning my plans for 2024 at the appropriate time,” she said in a statement responding to Porter’s announcement. “Right now I’m focused on ensuring California has all the resources it needs to cope with the devastating storms slamming the state and leaving more than a dozen dead.”

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