Democrats, We Have a Problem
And We Need to Talk About It
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We Need to Talk
Democrats, we have a problem. Our congresspeople keep dying on us. Since the start of the year, three House Democrats have passed away, leaving the party without the members it needs to stop the Trump agenda from advancing.
Early this morning, the House passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” by a 215–214 vote. All Democrats and two Republicans—Representatives Thomas Massie (KY) and Warren Davidson (OH)—voted against the bill, while Representative Andy Harris (MD) voted “present.” Two Republican members did not vote.
The bill, a cornerstone of Trump's second-term agenda, aims to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, eliminate income taxes on tips and overtime pay, and introduce new deductions such as a $1,000-per-child "Trump" savings account. It also raises the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap to $40,000 for those making $500,000 or less.
To offset these tax changes, the legislation decimates Medicaid and SNAP, introduces work requirements for Medicaid recipients that will eviscerate health care for entire families, throws millions of people off their insurance, raises health insurance costs for millions more, triggers massive cuts to Medicare for seniors, and raises gasoline prices for everyone. Food assistance for more than 40 million people, including children, seniors and adults with disabilities, would be slashed about 30% — the biggest cut in history. It will also explode the federal debt by $4 trillion.
This bill passed by one vote. In other words, had the three members still been alive, none of this horror would now be on the precipice of becoming law and permanently altering the lives of tens of millions of people.
It may be unpleasant and even unseemly to talk about the selfishness of these departed members but we need to address the elephant in the room. So let’s review who they were and what the last months of their public careers meant for the House Democratic caucus and for the rest of us.
Sylvester Turner (Texas, 18th District) Turner died on March 5, 2025, at the age of 70, due to natural causes amid ongoing health complications. He had been diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in 2022. Despite that, he ran for Congress in 2024, taking over the seat held by longtime U.S. Rep Shelia Jackson Lee, who died in office at age 74 of cancer. Two months after his swearing in, Turner was dead.
Raúl Grijalva (Arizona, 7th District) Grijalva passed away due to complications from lung cancer treatment at the age of 77. He had announced his diagnosis in April 2024 and continued to serve while undergoing treatment. From February 28, 2024, to March 11, 2025, he missed approximately 98% of votes. In early 2025, he had not voted in 51 out of 53 roll call votes.
Gerry Connolly (Virginia, 11th District) Connolly died yesterday at the age of 75, after battling esophageal cancer. He had announced his diagnosis in November 2024. Despite the diagnosis, he muscled out Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with the help of Democratic leadership to lead the House Oversight Committee. Connolly did not participate in any roll call votes from at least May 6 through May 20.
Look, I am not saying this to be heartless. Each of these members was a committed public servant. But there is such a thing as being a little too committed to the job, when it stops being about the public and starts being about themselves. None of them should have run last year. As anyone who has experienced cancer or watched a loved one go through treatment, it is brutally exhausting. So is serving in Congress.
This selfishness permeates both House and Senate Democrats. Nancy Pelosi, age 85, stepped down as the House Democratic leader but still played an active role in Connolly’s defeat of Ocasio-Cortez. She later missed votes after breaking her hip in a fall but remains in office.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, age 83, seems offended that he had to step down from leadership, along with Pelosi and Rep. Steny Hoyer, age 85. “Nancy left her seat. Steny left his seat. I left my seat,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “What the hell I’m supposed to do now? What do you want—me to give up my life?”
(Fact check: Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn did not leave their seats. They left their leadership positions but are still in the House, which means that their ability to deliver votes in a narrowly divided Congress depends on their health. They are all accomplished public servants. They are also clinging to their seats for dear life in advanced old age, even as the fate of more than 300 million Americans depends on their well-being.)
I get it: Clyburn has seen too many of his colleagues retire and then die because it was the work that had kept them going. We all know people like that, people who won’t ever retire to ride off into the sunset because their work is too meaningful to them. Hell, I am certain that I will be that person. But whether most of us continue to work until we drop is relevant only to ourselves. In the case of these older public officials, their decision to stick around impacts not just themselves but the nation.
All of us are being held hostage because Clyburn does not want play golf or audit lectures or whatever it is that people do in retirement. He cannot imagine a life that does not include serving in Congress, where he has been since 1993. So we need to just hope and pray that he does not catch a cold or a terminal disease or just die of old age. And please don’t tell me that any one of us can get hit by a bus at any moment, that we know neither the time nor place. That’s all true up to a point.
But ask yourself — why is it that Democratic members of Congress have been dropping like flies? It’s because, as the Wall Street Journal wrote recently:
Age is a bigger headache for Democrats than Republicans for one central reason: Democrats have a lot more old members. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have similar median ages. But of the 20 oldest House members elected in 2024, 16 were Democrats. In the Senate, where tensions over age are more subdued, nearly all of the oldest senators—11 of the 14 who were older than 75 at the start of this Congress—were Democrats.
Unlike the presidency, there is no vice congressperson or vice senator to take over if something happens to these members. Voters would have to wait for a special election to be called, leaving months of vacancies in a closely divided Congress.
This has real life ramifications for us all. Just ask the tens of millions of Americans whose life will be made much worse because of a bill that passed the House by just one vote.
Further Reading:
The Washington Post: How every House member voted on Trump’s big budget bill
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: By the Numbers: House Republican Reconciliation Bill Takes Food Assistance Away From Millions of People
Tax Policy Center: How Would Potential Federal Budget Cuts Impact State Budgets?
You are SO right on this. There should be term limits, but people also need to do the f'n right thing and get out when they reach age 70, and even earlier if they develop a disease. Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrecked the Supreme Court when should could have left when she was diagnosed with cancer. She SHOULD left! I'm sick of these old people in charge, and I'm 72!
This is an excellent article. Terrific analysis. Thank you Julie!
It’s not ageist to encourage people who have had long successful careers to make room for a new generation so the party can have strength at critical moments.
Nancy promised on TV that she had a handle on house in the 2024 election and wouldn’t lose it. Then she lost it anyway. Then she made the gaffe you reference putting a member in a leadership role that should have been stepping away to cope with a terminal disease, even though she claimed to have left her leadership chair. Now, her failure to actively manage succession while she was in the leadership role seems to have let the Big Beautiful Debt Bomb and Antidemocracy bill slip through. Tragic slide at the end of a long career and we are all.the victims partly because she wouldn’t let go.