The past eight members of Congress to die in office since November 2022 have all been Democrats, according to Business Insider.
Aging membership in both the House and Senate has long been a political talking point for younger lawmakers and political candidates, including for the left, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Wednesday’s death of Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., from esophageal cancer is the third House Democrat to die in the past three months, joining Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas, who died in early March.
Notably, if Democrats had won a GOP-like one- or two-seat majority in the House last November, it would have been lost now, Business Insider noted.
Also, notably, Connolly had beaten Ocasio-Cortez in a challenge for the position as Democrats’ ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.
While there are older Republicans in Congress, too, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Democrats are statistically an older group.
In the past Congress, the average House Democrat was six years older than the average House Republican, according to Fiscal Note.
President Donald Trump, himself about to turn 79, and conservatives like Richard Grenell argue that Democrats in the House are largely from long-established and Democrat-dominated districts, so they do not get challenged in primaries and even at times run unopposed in general elections.
That allows them to grow old in Congress and dominate their districts indefinitely, they argue.
Also, according to Fiscal Note, Senate Democrats in the past Congress were seven years older than Republicans on average. Many of the U.S. states are decidedly blue or red historically, with all but four states featuring their two senators being from the same side of the aisle.
The past eight members of Congress to die while serving in office:
- Connolly
- Grijalva
- Turner
- Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.
- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas
- Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J.
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
- Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
