After Dianne Feinstein: as a political giant steps down, California weighs its future

Dianne Feinstein, seen here announcing her run for mayor in 1971, has been described as a ‘great woman’ and a ‘trailblazer who knocked down doors for women’. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

When Dianne Feinstein arrived in Washington in 1992, her home state of California was solidly purple and Republican Pete Wilson occupied the governor’s office.

More than 30 years later, as the oldest member of Congress and California’s longest-serving senator prepares to retire, her state is arguably the most reliably blue in the US.