Do California voters think Dianne Feinstein is fit to remain in Senate? Poll results

Most California voters think that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s recent illness shows that she’s no longer fit to serve in the U.S. Senate, according to a statewide poll completed last week.

That said, voters are uncertain when it comes to whether the Democratic senator should resign. While more than 40% of people polled by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies responded that it would be best for her to resign now, more than a quarter said she should finish on her own terms. More than 30% didn’t want to share an opinion on it.

Feinstein, who turns 90 next month, returned to the Senate on May 10 after a nearly three-month absence due to shingles and related complications.

Pressure for her to return mounted as weeks passed without her vote, crucial in a Senate that is split with 51 members who tend to vote with the Democrats and 49 Republicans. Her vote was needed for Democrats to approve favored judicial nominees without Republican support on the Senate Judiciary Committee that is similarly split on thin margins.

More than half of voters who participated in the Berkeley IGS Poll said they thought her health issues were “creating serious problems for the Democratic Party’s ability to get judicial nominees confirmed and get important legislation approved.”

Two-thirds of the voters agreed that “Feinstein’s latest illness underlines the fact that she is no longer fit to continue serving in the U.S. Senate.” Consensus spread across Democrats, Republicans and no-party-preference voters.

The poll was administered online in English and Spanish between May 17 and 22 among 7,465 registered voters in California, 5,236 of whom were considered likely to vote in the March 2024 primary election.

Voters split on if Feinstein should resign

Democrats polled were more partial to Feinstein resigning, which would mean that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint a replacement. Republicans were less likely to concur, wrote Mark DiCamillo, the director of Berkeley IGS Poll, “ostensibly because it would enable Newsom to appoint her successor.”

More than half of voters agreed Newsom appointing a successor would benefit the state. At the same time, more than half of voters said it would be bad “because voters, not the Governor, should choose the state’s senators.”

Almost 60% of voters said that calls for Feinstein to resign were not rooted in sexism and disagreed that this would not happen to a man in the same circumstances. Men polled overwhelmingly held that point of view. More women concurred than not, but by a much narrower margin.

A larger proportion of men supported Feinstein resigning.

Feinstein said she will not seek re-election in 2024 but so far has been adamant that she will serve the rest of this term. Her office declined to comment for this story.

Newsom said that he would appoint a Black woman if Feinstein were to step aside.

Race to succeed Feinstein is wide open

DiCamillo wrote that the race to succeed her “remains a wide-open affair” based on the results of the most recent poll. Leading was attorney Eric Early, the only major Republican to have entered so far.

Voters intending to pick a Democrat have more options and are divided among them. Trailing Early by a percentage point was Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, followed closely by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, had far less support.

Still, 32% of expected voters were undecided, per the poll, and another 10% say they would support “someone else.” Many voters had no opinion on the candidates themselves, suggesting that they are not yet familiar with them.

Voters said their top concern was the economy and inflation. Democrats also noted threats to democracy and gun control should be addressed, while Republicans were more concerned with crime, law enforcement and immigration.

Fewer than 30% of voters said they viewed Feinstein favorably, down 8 percentage points from a February Berkeley IGS Poll and almost 20 percentage points lower than when she last ran for re-election in 2018.

IGS Co-Director G. Cristina Mora said that “the poll clearly shows that while support for Senator Feinstein has waned considerably since 2018, there is no clear consensus about how the process should play out, and this will impact her ability to connect with voters and serve her constituents over the remainder of her term.”