Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Sen. Dianne Feinstein Loses Democratic Party Endorsement

The California Democratic Party refused to endorse Sen. Dianne Feinstein for a fifth term at their convention over the weekend, indicating a growing disconnect between the moderate senator and her liberal constituency.

The endorsement of a sitting senator should have been a cake walk. But Feinstein, 84, encountered a an angry party convention, with delegates complaining they hadn’t seen her for decades and questioning her votes on the Iraq War and wiretaps and her stances on healthcare and minimum wage. Last-minute efforts by Feinstein to work the crowd and highlight her progressive ideology did little to change the picture.

Feinstein, the longest-serving Jewish member of the U.S. Senate, received only 37% of her state party’s votes. Her main rival, state senate leader Kevin de León, won 54%. Both fell short of the 60% threshold required in order to receive the party’s endorsement.

The vote was likely a setback for both candidates, who will face each other in the party primary in June and then likely again in November, since under California rules the top two primary vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. Feinstein will be embarrassed by the lack of endorsement, and De Leon could have used the party’s official endorsement to combat his deficits in cash and name recognition.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.