Dem Rep. Barbara Lee, 76, Faces Age Question in Senate Race

The Democrat primary battle for seat of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., 90, is heating up and the advanced age of Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., 76, is expected to be used against her by her opponents.

"How can you say DiFi is old and [Lee] is not," asked a prominent California Democrat permitted to keep anonymity by the the L.A. Times to avoid being offensive.

"There's already a frustration about how we’re gonna spend so much freaking money for a safe Democratic seat this cycle — and then what? We have to do it again if she's not going to be there that long."

Most Californians want Feinstein to resign, according to UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies polling, which also revealed almost two-thirds of registered voters say her medical issues make her unfit to serve.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is 63, while Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., is 49 in the Democratic field, while former Los Angeles Dodgers player Steve Garvey, 74, is weighing a Senate run as a Republican in the Democrat-controlled state.

The median age of a U.S. senator is 65, according to the Pew Research Center, and Lee would be 78 on her first day as a senator.

Sara Nichols a Democrat fundraiser in the state might say she "loves" the candidates, but she put the onus on age in her comments, according to the Times.

"I would be thrilled to see any one of these exceptional candidates win Dianne Feinstein's seat: Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Katie Porter and Rep. Barbara Lee," she wrote in an email to her potential donors. "Sadly, they will be duking it out for the foreseeable future, trying to win our hearts and minds."

Nichols, 76, said Lee aligns with her "political worldview," but she wants to save the party money, too, in order to install someone longer term in a safe Democrat Senate seat, according to the Times.

"She's one of the kindest people I know," Nichols told the Times. "I love that woman to the moon and back. But I also love my country, and I love my granddaughter more.

"My generation has screwed up this planet so badly. We've had our chance. Time to move on. The end of her term, though, if [Lee] were to win, she'd be 84.

"And I had lots of reliable people tell me in 2018 that Dianne Feinstein was showing serious signs of dementia."

Lee disregarded criticism of her age.

"It's important for me to stay focused and to not let the noise become a destabilizing factor in my campaign, because I intend to win this," Lee told the Times. "Voters will make their own decision.

"People want representation. The lens that I bring as an African American woman has not been in the Senate for a while, and [there have been] only two African American women since 1789."

Schiff is the money leader to date, having raised $8.1 million in the second quarter and having almost $30 million in his warchest. Lee raised just $1 million and has $2.1 million overall. Porter has not released her numbers, according to the report.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is chairing Lee's campaign and saying she is "fresher than the other candidates."

"It's not about age," he told the Times. "It's a willingness to call into question the status quo and be the only vote against a 20-year-war in Afghanistan, be the voice that speaks up against [invading] Iraq, and is a voice that is speaking out against bloated military budgets.

"When people say 'Barbara Lee speaks for me,' that's what they're talking about."

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