California Sen. Dianne Feinstein set to keep her seat

WASHINGTON – Sen. Dianne Feinstein is expected to represent California in Washington for another six-year term after early results show her handily defeating state Sen. Kevin de Leon, a progressive Democrat who struggled to gain traction by challenging her from the left.

“This is the greatest honor in my life, to represent my city and my state in the Senate of the United States,” Feinstein said Tuesday at her electionnight party in San Francisco. “This state – the fifthlargest economic power on Earth, over 40 million people, bigger than 21 states and the District of Columbia put together – needs strong representation.”

The expected victory cements her legacy as the longest consecutively serving statewide elected official in California history, but also presents Feinstein, 85, with new challenges in what many view as her final Senate term.

As an old-school pragmatist and one of the few remaining Senate traditionalists, Feinstein may find it difficult to operate amid the heightened partisan rancor that is stripping the last vestiges of cooperation and civility from Congress’ upper chamber. The Democratic takeover of the House will only heighten tensions between Capitol Hill and the Trump White House.

“Part of her legacy will be as one of the last Senate institutionalists trying to hold these things together,” said Eric Schickler, a University of California, Berkeley political science professor and an expert on Congress. “There’s not a whole lot of space there in the center. There’s not a whole lot of cover.”

And despite Feinstein’s re-election in a state where many residents can’t even remember a time when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-calif.) speaks at a lunch hosted by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce convention Center in October, in Riverside.

she wasn’t in the Senate, her moderate views are increasingly out of step with California and a Democratic Party that are both moving further to the left.

Nevertheless, as the Senate’s oldest member and one of its savviest negotiators, Feinstein stands to play a key role in Democrats’ efforts to confront the president over the next two years. If Democrats regain

the Senate majority in 2020, she could cap her long career as the first woman to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Republicans held control of the Senate on Tuesday, leaving Feinstein as the highest-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee – a position that puts her at odds with Trump over immigration and judicial nominees.