Dianne Feinstein, who has represented California in the U.S. Senate since 1992, isn’t going to have the smooth re-election process she might have hoped for. Reports are surfacing that Kevin de Leon, a fellow Democrat and the president of the California state senate, will challenge her in the state’s primary,22 and Feinstein might have reason to be worried.
As we’ve noted recently, the idea that Feinstein would face a primary challenge isn’t a total shock. During the first year of the Trump administration, Feinstein has been singled out by her liberal constituents for being too conservative for their taste. She’s been booed by them at town hall events and a late March poll of California adults showed that Feinstein’s approval rating had slipped 7 percentage points from the previous year, to 49 percent.
Feinstein is feeling the heat in part because her more liberal constituents are correct in surmising that she is more conservative — relative to the politics of the state she represents — than other Democrats. Feinstein has voted in support of President Trump’s agenda 31 percent of the time, according to our Trump score. Ten Democrats have voted with Trump more. But because California is so liberal — Trump lost there by 30 percentage points in 2016 — we’d expect Feinstein to vote in line with the Trump position just 19 percent of the time. That’s a bigger pro-Trump gap than any other Democrat in the Senate.
How often Democratic senators vote with Trump
Difference between a member’s actual and predicted Trump-support scores
| MEMBER | STATE | TRUMP SCORE | PREDICTED SCORE | TRUMP PLUS-MINUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dianne Feinstein | CA | 31.3% | 19.2% | +12.1 |
| Mazie K. Hirono | HI | 26.5 | 17.9 | +8.6 |
| Brian Schatz | HI | 26.5 | 17.9 | +8.6 |
| Benjamin L. Cardin | MD | 26.5 | 20.7 | +5.8 |
| Patrick J. Leahy | VT | 24.5 | 20.7 | +3.8 |
| Mark R. Warner | VA | 42.9 | 43.0 | -0.1 |
| Chris Van Hollen | MD | 20.8 | 21.1 | -0.3 |
| Charles E. Schumer | NY | 22.4 | 23.1 | -0.6 |
| Maria Cantwell | WA | 26.5 | 28.7 | -2.2 |
| Kamala D. Harris | CA | 16.3 | 18.8 | -2.5 |
| Tammy Duckworth | IL | 24.5 | 27.2 | -2.7 |
| Thomas R. Carper | DE | 30.6 | 33.3 | -2.7 |
| Angus S. King Jr. | ME | 44.9 | 47.6 | -2.7 |
| Christopher Murphy | CT | 27.1 | 30.5 | -3.4 |
| Robert Menendez | NJ | 25.0 | 28.8 | -3.8 |
| Christopher A. Coons | DE | 29.2 | 33.8 | -4.6 |
| Richard J. Durbin | IL | 21.3 | 26.2 | -4.9 |
| Edward J. Markey | MA | 14.6 | 20.7 | -6.1 |
| Jack Reed | RI | 22.4 | 28.7 | -6.2 |
| Sheldon Whitehouse | RI | 22.4 | 28.7 | -6.2 |
| Patty Murray | WA | 22.4 | 28.7 | -6.3 |
| Bernard Sanders | VT | 14.3 | 20.7 | -6.4 |
| Elizabeth Warren | MA | 10.2 | 20.3 | -10.1 |
| Tim Kaine | VA | 32.7 | 43.0 | -10.3 |
| Richard Blumenthal | CT | 18.8 | 30.5 | -11.7 |
| Michael F. Bennet | CO | 30.6 | 43.8 | -13.1 |
| Catherine Cortez Masto | NV | 34.7 | 48.7 | -14.0 |
| Kirsten E. Gillibrand | NY | 8.2 | 23.1 | -14.9 |
| Martin Heinrich | NM | 22.4 | 38.0 | -15.5 |
| Cory A. Booker | NJ | 14.3 | 30.1 | -15.8 |
| Ron Wyden | OR | 16.3 | 33.9 | -17.6 |
| Tom Udall | NM | 20.4 | 38.0 | -17.6 |
| Bill Nelson | FL | 36.7 | 56.3 | -19.6 |
| Amy Klobuchar | MN | 30.6 | 50.5 | -19.9 |
| Jeff Merkley | OR | 12.2 | 33.9 | -21.7 |
| Margaret Wood Hassan | NH | 30.6 | 53.0 | -22.4 |
| Jeanne Shaheen | NH | 30.6 | 53.0 | -22.4 |
| Al Franken | MN | 25.0 | 49.6 | -24.6 |
| Gary C. Peters | MI | 29.2 | 54.2 | -25.0 |
| Debbie Stabenow | MI | 28.6 | 54.2 | -25.7 |
| Robert P. Casey Jr. | PA | 28.6 | 55.3 | -26.7 |
| Tammy Baldwin | WI | 20.4 | 55.4 | -35.0 |
| Joe Donnelly | IN | 47.9 | 84.8 | -36.9 |
| Joe Manchin III | WV | 55.1 | 93.6 | -38.5 |
| Sherrod Brown | OH | 30.6 | 70.3 | -39.6 |
| Claire McCaskill | MO | 43.8 | 84.6 | -40.8 |
| Heidi Heitkamp | ND | 51.0 | 92.9 | -41.9 |
| Jon Tester | MT | 38.8 | 86.1 | -47.3 |
California just passed legislation to become a “sanctuary state,” a move that has been met with displeasure by the Trump administration. De Leon seems likely to play up the state’s need to assert itself as a powerful bloc of resistance to Trump.
In recent weeks, local news sources have noted de Leon’s rebukes of Feinstein, whom he paints as sympathetic to Trump. In August, after Feinstein said Trump “can be a good president” if he were to “learn and change,” de Leon hit back, saying, “It is the responsibility of Congress to hold him accountable — especially Democrats, not be complicit in his reckless behavior.” Most recently, de Leon pushed back against Feinstein’s comments that the recent massacre in Las Vegas couldn’t have been prevented by changes in gun laws because the shooter had passed background checks.
National Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and fellow California Sen. Kamala Harris have voiced their supported for Feinstein, but she reportedly pushed up the announcement that she would run for re-election to this week out of worry that de Leon would announce soon. After Feinstein’s re-election announcement, Rep. Ro Khanna said that Feinstein was “out of touch” and that it was time for Democrats to “move on” from the 84-year-old senator. Asked about possible alternatives, Khanna floated not de Leon, but Rep. Barbara Lee or former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Whoever jumps into the race, Feinstein’s 2018 looks like anything but smooth sailing.