Dianne Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco, makes history on November 3, 1992, when she wins election to the U.S. Senate. The first woman to represent the state of California in the upper chamber, she joins a record number of women winning seats in Congress that year, earning 1992 the label "Year of the Woman.”
Born June 22, 1933, in San Francisco, Feinstein graduated from Stanford University and became the first woman to serve on the city’s Board of Supervisors, where she held the position from 1969-1978 and served as board president. She became the first woman to serve as San Francisco’s mayor in 1978, following the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk—an office she held until 1988.
In 1990, the Democrat lost a 1990 bid for California governor to Pete Wilson, but went on to secure Wilson’s vacant Senate seat in the 1992 election, defeating Republican challenger Rep. Pete McCloskey. Reelected to the Senate five times—in 1994, 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2018—Feinstein served in the Senate for more than 30 years, making her the longest-serving woman Senator. She died at age 90 in September of 2023.
“We went from two women senators when I ran for office in 1992 to 24 today—and I know that number will keep climbing,” she said in a statement on her 30th anniversary of serving in the Senate.
