Former Sen. John Seymour, the last Republican to represent California in the U.S. Senate, died April 18 in Carlsbad, Calif., more than 33 years after voters replaced him with Democrat Dianne Feinstein in November 1992. He was 88 years old.

Seymour’s stint in the Senate was short: He was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Jan. 7, 1991, to fill the seat Wilson vacated after winning the gubernatorial election in 1990. He made a bid to keep the seat for the last two years of the term in 1992, but lost the special election to Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, and left office on Nov. 3, 1992. Feinstein went on to become the longest-serving woman in the Senate, with nearly 31 years in office before her death in 2023.

During his brief tenure, Seymour built a reputation for bipartisanship and collaboration as a moderate Republican in a party lurching rightward. 

When he was appointed by Wilson, a longtime personal ally who was also a more mainstream conservative focused on consensus, Seymour had been a state senator since 1982, representing northern Orange County in Sacramento after a stint as mayor of Anaheim. 

As a state senator, Seymour caught some fire from his right flank after becoming head of the Republican Senate caucus and focusing on bipartisan consensus rather than flashy issues. He was ousted as caucus chair by more conservative members of his party, and later announced he was pro-choice, despite being personally opposed to abortion.

Seymour had previously run for lieutenant governor and came up short in the 1990 Republican primary, his only attempt at a statewide election before he was appointed to the Senate. He sought to win over voters with his more moderate stances, but he had a steep hill to climb to retain the seat, given limited name recognition and a short window in which to garner support. 

“If somewhere in a footnote, history should record my public service, I would hope that they record me as one who cared more for people than for policy, one who was a no-nonsense guy who worked hard for those in need of help, but who wasn’t hesitant to knock heads of bureaucrats in order to get things done,” he told supporters at the kickoff to his Senate special election campaign, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Feinstein handily beat Seymour to finish out the last two years of the term, kicking off a three-decade stint in the Senate that ended upon her death.

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., said in a speech on the House floor on April 23 that Seymour had “earned a reputation as a pragmatic leader who was willing to work across the aisle on issues such as education, public health and responsible governance.” 

Seymour spent a stint after he departed the Senate as the executive director of the California Housing Agency. He later stepped into the nonprofit space as chief executive of the Southern California Housing Development Corp.