Trailblazing US Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein dies aged 90

Sen. Dianne Feinstein listens to remarks from Republican senators during a Senate Judiciary Committee. Picture: Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

US senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the senate in 1992 in the “Year of the Woman” and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died aged 90.

Ms Feinstein, the oldest sitting US senator, was a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state – including environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control – but was also known as a pragmatic legislator who reached out to Republicans and sought the middle ground.