Texas congressman Sylvester Turner dies just hours after unhinged Trump address

US Congressman and former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner has died at the age of 70 in Washington, DC.

Turner’s spokesperson, Linda Brown, said he was taken to a hospital in Washington and died at his home on Wednesday morning after being released. The cause of his death was not immediately known.

Turner attended President Donald Trump’s address before Congress on Tuesday.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats were “shocked and saddened” by Turner’s “sudden passing.”

“Though he was newly elected to the Congress, Rep. Turner had a long and distinguished career in public service and spent decades fighting for the people of Houston,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Sylvester Turner was former Houston mayor
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Image:

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Turner was elected to represent the Houston area in Congress last November succeeding former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who who died last July after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

In November 2022, Turner revealed he had undergone treatment for bone cancer in his jaw.

Turner served eight years as Houston’s mayor, leading the city through devastating flooding from Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Before being elected as mayor, Turner served 27 years in the Texas House of Representatives.

In his final post on X, Turner called for Trump not to slash funding to Medicaid.

“My message to the current administration for tonight’s State of the Union: ‘Don’t mess with Medicaid,'” he wrote.

“President Trump and Elon Musk’s push to gut Medicaid is nothing short of a betrayal of the most vulnerable among us. They are playing politics with children’s lives, and I will not stand for it,” he added.