[BusinessInsider] No coincidence at all. While the Republicans started replacing their country club Republicans like Mitt Romney in 2007 with first TEA Partiers and then MAGA Trumpsters, the Democrat Old Guard were holding tight to power — leaving only when carried out by six, including a state funeral attended by all the former presidents except Donald Trump, who was openly told his presence wasn’t wanted.
- Eight sitting members of Congress have died since November 2022.
- Every single one of them was a Democrat.
- The party has been wrestling with age and gerontocracy for years.
In the last two and a half years, eight sitting members of the House or Senate have died in office. Every time, it's been a Democrat.
Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, died on Wednesday at 75, after a battle with esophageal cancer.
He's the third House Democrat to die in the last three months. If Democrats had gained a narrow 1 or 2-seat majority in 2024, they would have lost it by now.
The streak of Democratic deaths could just be something of a coincidence. After all, there are plenty of elderly and diminished Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
But Democrats do tend to be older than Republicans, on average. A report from FiscalNote found that in the last Congress, the average House Democrat was six years older than the average House Republican, while the gap was seven years in he upper chamber.
There are some potential structural reasons for this as well, including the seniority system, which Democrats tend to employ more than Republicans.
The deaths are just another data point in a long-running conversation that's been raging within the Democratic Party for years about age and gerontocracy, which culminated last year in President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the presidential race after a disastrous debate performance.
Since then, Democrats in particular have been taking age more seriously, including when it comes to who's serving in important committee positions. Connolly notably beat back a challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York in December for the Oversight position he's now vacated.
Here's the full list of Democratic lawmakers who have died in office since November 2022:
- Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia
- Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona
- Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas
- Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey
- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas
- Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California
- Rep. Donald McEachin of Virginia
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