By now, Vice President Kamala Harris has been polling underwater for half a year… but the polling looks even more grim for Harris’ former colleague: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Feinstein just saw her approval rating plummet to the lowest point in her Senate career. Only 30 percent of California’s registered voters said they approved of Feinstein’s performance, according to a February poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California.
By comparison, 38 percent approved of Harris, a former California senator herself. Meanwhile, 34 percent approved Sen. Daniel Padilla, D-Calif., with 40 percent expressing “no opinion on him.”
The Los Angeles Times co-sponsored the poll. The paper reported, “The Berkeley IGS poll surveyed 8,937 California registered voters Feb. 3-10. The poll was administered online in English and Spanish. The estimated sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.”
Poll director Mark DiCamillo told the L.A. Times Wednesday, “I was amazed at the disaffection for both of the women,” referring to Harris and Feinstein.
However, Feinstein is suffering popularity problems even among women. Only one-third of California’s woman voters approved of Feinstein, and 42 percent disapproved.
She also lost popularity among voters under 40, voters from her home city, and voters self-identifying as liberal. At this point, she’s sitting at 49 percent disapproval overall.
Feinstein wasn’t always like this. She enjoyed wide popularity during her 19-year stint in San Francisco’s city government, easily defeating a recall attempt as mayor in 1983.
She lost some popularity after joining the Senate. After all, a statewide constituency is very different than a citywide constituency. Still, she remained above water in Senate polling, according to the L.A. Times, and she pushed Democratic priorities like gun control and congressional oversight of the C.I.A.
Then Feinstein saw her popularity tumble in 2017. That year, she famously gave the Republicans a sound bite by telling judicial nominee Amy Coney Barret, “The dogma lives loudly within you.”
In 2020, she came under fire for, in the Democrats’ view, asking softball questions to Barrett during a hearing for Supreme Court nominees. She also asked redundant, repetitious questions to Twitter executive Jack Dorsey — in what critics described as a “senior moment.”
She’s also experienced diminished success. In 2018, Feinstein faced a primary challenge from “proud progressive” Kevin de Leon.
Feinstein ultimately prevailed amid Leon’s scandal over flip-flopping on whistleblower legislation, but she won by a small margin, relative to her past elections.
Still, Feinstein, 88, has repeatedly killed rumors of early retirement. She intends to remain in the Senate until the end of her term in January 2025, despite recently becoming the oldest senator.
Californians have grown sick of her.
The Horn editorial team