By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat who led the impeachment case against former President Donald Trump and sat on a committee that probed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said on Thursday he would run for U.S. Senate.
Schiff joined other California Democrats aiming for the seat currently held by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. U.S. Representative Katie Porter launched her U.S. Senate campaign this month. The Washington Post has reported that Representative Barbara Lee was also planning to run for the seat.
“Our democracy is under assault from MAGA extremists, who care only about gaining power and keeping it,” Schiff said in a statement, using a Trump slogan standing for “Make America Great Again.”
“I look forward to campaigning hard in this race,” Schiff said.
Feinstein, who has held the seat since 1992, has not said she would run for re-election but has faced pressure to resign given that she is the oldest member of Congress at 89 years old. If she were re-elected, she would be 97 at the end of her six-year term.
Schiff, 62, is the former chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. The new Republican House Speaker, fellow Californian Kevin McCarthy, has blocked Schiff from serving on the prestigious panel again.
Schiff, a prominent House Democrat who was first elected in 2000, gained national attention for his high-profile role in the 2020 Trump impeachment trial. He also sat on the select committee investigating the Republican former president’s role in the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Feinstein is a trailblazer in U.S. politics: the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco, first woman to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee and now the longest-serving female senator. She has said she would make an announcement of her plans for 2024 at the appropriate time.
(This story has been refiled to fix syntax in headline.)
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Susan Heavey in Washington; editing by Doina Chiacu and Aurora Ellis)
