Oldest member of US Senate, Dianne Feinstein, announces re-election bid at 84

WASHINGTON: The oldest serving member of the US Senate, 84 year-old California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, announced on Monday she is running for re-election next year.

"I am running for reelection to the Senate," she tweeted from a rarely used account that her office confirmed is genuine.

"Lots more to do: ending gun violence, combating climate change, access to healthcare. I'm all in!"

Feinstein was first elected to serve in the Senate in 1992, when she and Barbara Boxer became California's first female US senators. Boxer retired last January, and was replaced by Senator Kamala Harris.

Feinstein is one of eight octogenarians in the US Senate. She is three months older than Republican Chuck Grassley, and nine months older than Republican Orrin Hatch.

Should Feinstein win, she would be 91 by the end of her term in Congress.

The veteran Democrat had dodged questions about whether she would seek a fifth term, leaving her party in the nation's most populous state in limbo about whether to start grooming a possible replacement.

Gun control has been a top priority for Feinstein since she entered Congress. She succeeded George Moscone as mayor of San Francisco in 1978 after Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk were shot dead by a rival politician.

The issue of gun violence surged to the fore last week after a shooter in Las Vegas slaughtered 58 people and injured nearly 500 more with high-powered semi-automatic rifles.

The shooter used devices known as bump stocks, which accelerate the firing rate of a semi-automatic to that of a fully automatic rifle. Feinstein has introduced Senate legislation to ban the sale or use of the devices.