Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey is reportedly among the names being floated to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) as a replacement for Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) as concerns mount over the senator's medical problems.

Representatives for Newsom did not respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment on the Winfrey matter, which stems from an Associated Press report published Tuesday. In it, the outlet alleges that Winfrey is one of the numerous names being "floated in California circles as possible replacements" for Feinstein, who returned to the Senate earlier this month amid enormous pressure from inside her party to come back or resign.

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Feinstein, the Senate's oldest member at 89, had been gone from the upper chamber since receiving a shingles diagnosis in February. Her absence stymied Democrats' ability to pass President Joe Biden's nominees and legislative efforts. The party only controls the Senate by a 51-49 margin, meaning that one absence gives Republicans an opportunity to block any partisan effort.

After years of criticisms from those in her party that she was no longer up to the job, Feinstein said at the time of her diagnosis that she wouldn't seek reelection in 2024, though she vowed to serve out the remaining 20 months of her term. Facing resignation calls from House Democrats and frustration from her Senate colleagues that was spilling out into public view, a wheelchair-bound Feinstein returned to the Capitol in mid-May looking frail and at times disoriented.

She revived concerns about her age and mental acuity, which had been percolating through a drip of stories over the last decade, after her return to the Senate, most notably when she appeared to forget about her much-discussed absence completely. Making matters worse for the octogenarian senator, a series of reports revealed that she was suffering from complications caused by shingles that she was hiding from the public and is secretly under the care of one of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) daughters.

Those reports followed years of articles that accused Feinstein of not recognizing longtime colleagues and forgetting about conversations and meetings she had just been in. Feinstein has remained adamant that she will not resign before the end of her term despite public concern about her fitness to serve and has described being a senator as her "calling."

Despite her refusal to step down, Feinstein's deteriorating health has placed Newsom in an uncomfortable position. The race to replace Feinstein in the next Congress is between Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Katie Porter (D-CA), and Barbara Lee (D-CA), with Schiff leading in the polls by a significant margin. Newsom vowed in 2021 that he would fill Feinstein's seat, should she retire early, with a black woman after he appointed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), a Hispanic male, to replace Vice President Kamala Harris.

Lee, a black woman, was one of Newsom's front-runners to fill Harris's seat, though the governor is hoping to avoid weighing in on the 2024 primary with his pick for Feinstein's replacement. Lee has polled well behind Schiff and Porter, so an appointment by Newsom would give her the benefit of incumbency in her primary race. To prevent this, Newsom is considering "caretaker" options who would be willing to only serve for the remainder of Feinstein's term, which is where a name like Winfrey's comes in.

The talk show legend's inclusion on the list of potential replacements comes, at least in part, as a result of the dwindling number of available names for Newsom to choose from. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have also been referenced as potential Feinstein successors, though Bass and Jenkins are fairly new to their positions and would not necessarily be interested in leaving.

Winfrey has publicly flirted with running for public office before, even considering a White House bid in the 2020 cycle. She ultimately decided against it, though it is unclear if she'd be amenable to a two-year stint in the upper chamber of Congress.

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Asked about the situation in an interview with Fox 11 earlier this month, Newsom said he was being bombarded by Californians giving him suggestions about who to appoint to Feinstein's seat.

"Emails, calls, texts, people stopping me — I mean, I'm not kidding," Newsom said. "This is one of the biggest topics here. It was one of the biggest topics when I was in Alabama."