Dianne Feinstein is an American politician who has served as the senior United States Senator from California since 1992.

She served as the Democratic mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.

Feinstein, born in San Francisco, graduated from Stanford University in 1955. In the 1960s, she worked in local government in San Francisco.

She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and during her tenure as the board’s first female president, Dan White’s assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Manager Harvey Milk attracted national attention.

Feinstein succeeded Moscone as mayor and became the city’s first female mayor.

During her tenure, she oversaw the 1984 Democratic National Convention and the renovation of the city’s cable car system.

Despite a failed recall attempt in 1983, Feinstein was a popular mayor, named the nation’s most effective mayor by City & State in 1987.

Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Bertram Feinstein

Feinstein married her second husband, neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein, in 1962, shortly after she began her political career.

Death of Bertram Feinstein

The marriage between Bertram Feinstein and Dianne lasted 16 years before being cut short by death. Bertram died of colon cancer in 1978. Dianne remarried in 1980, and her third husband was the famous investment banker Richard C. Blum.

Dianne Feinstein Health

In January 2017, Feinstein had an artificial pacemaker implanted at George Washington University Hospital.

Following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in fall 2020, concerns were raised about Feinstein’s ability to continue in office.

She said she had no reason to worry and had no plans to leave the Senate.

Dianne Feinstein Awards and Honors

On June 4, 1977, Feinstein received an honorary doctorate from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

France awarded him the Legion of Honor in 1984. On November 3, 2001, Feinstein received the Woodrow Wilson Prize for Public Service from the Smithsonian Institution’s Woodrow Wilson Center in Los Angeles.

She also received the American Medical Association’s 2002 Nathan Davis Award for “Improving Public Health.” In 2015, she was named one of “The Forward 50.”

Dianne Feinstein’s political activities as president

Feinstein was a member of President Jimmy Carter’s California steering committee and a Carter delegate to the Democratic National Convention during the 1980 presidential election.

She was elected one of four chairs of the Democratic National Convention in 1980.

In the 1984 presidential election, Feinstein supported former Vice President Walter Mondale.

In 1983, she and Democratic National Committee Chairman Charles Manatt signed an agreement designating San Francisco as the site of the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

Dianne Feinstein’s ancestry

His maternal grandparents, called the Rosenbergs, were Russians from St. Petersburg.

Despite their German Jewish origin, they practiced the Russian Orthodox (Christian) faith, as was obligatory for Jews in St. Petersburg.

Feinstein’s mother insisted that she transfer from a Jewish school to a prestigious local Catholic school, but Feinstein’s religion is listed as Judaism.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Stanford University in 1955 after graduating from Convent of the Sacred Heart High School in 1951.