Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced her retirement on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most competitive Senate race in California in three decades.
Feinstein, who will turn 90 in June, said she will not seek reelection when her term expires in 2024. Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter have already announced their campaigns to succeed her, and Rep. Barbara Lee is also expected to join the race.
Feinstein has served California since being elected in 1992, and is the oldest current member of Congress. In recent years, her declining acuity has been a source of widespread concern, especially when she was the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee during the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. She relinquished that post in 2020.
After the announcement, tributes poured in honoring her five-decade career in public office, including from the entertainment industry.
“The creative community will lose an incredible, stalwart ally in the Senate when Senator Dianne Feinstein finishes her term next year,” said Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, in a statement. “There have been few more ardent defenders of the First Amendment and copyright protections than Senator Feinstein, and her resolve and commitment will be sorely missed in Washington by the film, television, and streaming industry.”
Feinstein was involved in the passage of the Music Modernization Act in 2018, which updated the way songwriters and musicians are paid for streaming music, and which had the broad support of the music industry and tech companies.
In 2005, she also sponsored a bill that made it a federal crime to use a camcorder in a theater to pirate movies. Feinstein also sided with Hollywood — and against the tech industry — in the fight over the Protect IP Act in 2012, which ultimately did not pass.
The California IATSE Council, which represents film and TV workers, recently endorsed Schiff to succeed Feinstein, noting his long-standing support for the industry.