by ALEXIS MARTIN
Resting her hand on a casket draped with an American flag, former U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wept for her longtime friend, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. On Oct. 5, 1,500 people gathered at San Francisco City Hall for Feinstein’s moving memorial service.
It was a rare sighting of many prominent political figures. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were all in attendance.
A choir sang triumphantly in honor of Feinstein, memorializing her death … not just for the city of San Francisco, but for California and the nation. Her peers described her as “a champion, a fighter, and a leader who feared no evil.”
With Feinstein’s passing, the ousting of Kevin McCarthy and the appointment of Laphonza Butler, Feinstein’s temporary replacement, the first week of October marked a turbulent time in American and California politics.
A Los Angeles native, Butler is a long-time labor organizer and politician who was raised in Mississippi and attended Jackson State University.
She has powerfully led the Service Employees International Union throughout California and later worked in political strategy, most notably for Harris’ vice presidential campaign in 2020. Butler will serve for Feinstein’s remaining term, which ends in 2025.
While Butler isn’t expected to run for the Senate in the upcoming 2024 election, there is no doubt about her unwavering commitment to serve California.
“California voters want leaders who think about them and the issues they care about,” Butler said.
“I have 383 days to serve the people of California with every ounce of energy and effort that I have. Muhammad Ali once said, ‘Don’t count the days, make the days count.’ I intend to do just that.”
This fervor for service mirrors Feinstein’s lifelong tenure. After the 1978 assassination of then-mayor George Moscone, Feinstein was elected mayor of San Francisco.
She occupied the office for 10 years, before serving in the U.S. Senate for the next 31 years.
When Feinstein was elected, San Francisco was in a state of unrest.
But the feisty, natural leader happened to be just what the city needed: a pioneer for generational change. She was a role model for youth.
For Amanda Alvarado, executive director of La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco, Feinstein was the female representation she needed as a young girl, which “really meant the world and inspired” her.
Being the longest-serving female senator in U.S. history at age 90, Feinstein served California until Sept. 29.
She cast her last vote on the Senate floor, saying, “Yea” on a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration.
Serving three decades, Feinstein’s focus centered on gun control, and LGBTQ+ and women’s rights. She led confidently and unapologetically as the first woman to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee.
When the AIDS epidemic arrived in the early 1980s, Feinstein was one of the first politicians to stand with the LGBTQ+ community and authorize significant funding to fight the HIV virus and AIDS.
Many California public servants were directly impacted by her grit and accomplishments, such as the executive director of Equality California— the largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights nonprofit—Tony Hoang.
“She saved our community when we needed it most,” Hoang said.
Among the list of her pivotal moves was her vote against President Bill Clinton’s Defense of Marriage Act, preventing same-sex couples who were married legally in states from receiving federal benefits.
Even in the wake of Feinstein’s passing, her legacy lives on.
Said Pelosi: “She stayed involved in our community, always caring about the daily struggles and highest aspirations of the people of San Francisco. Dianne Feinstein was, and always will be, our Forever Mayor.”
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