The Fort Worth congresswoman admitted to “health challenges” after missing her last 126 House roll call votes.
DALLAS — The first female mayor of Fort Worth. The first Republican woman to represent Texas in Congress. Kay Granger achieved a lot of firsts in her political career.
But she’s not the first politician whose age and abilities have come into question while they were serving in office.
“Kay Granger has served our state and North Texas honorably with tremendous tenacity and focus and determination for a very long time. She’s very respected up on Capitol Hill,” said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak. “But obviously she’s facing some very serious health challenges.”
Granger’s office denies she is living in a memory care facility as a conservative website alleged.
But her son told the Dallas Morning News his mother is having dementia issues.
Her staff released a statement from the representative on Sunday saying, “I have been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year. However, since early September, my health challenges have progressed making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable.”
Granger, 81, has not been present for a House vote since late July.
“I think the question is going to be, what responsibility do staffers in offices and does a member of Congress themselves have to be truthful and out front on their health issues?” Mackowiak said. “She’s not the only member of Congress who misses votes.”
The debate over the age of elected officials hit a fever pitch during the 2024 presidential race, which pitted Joe Biden and Donald Trump against each other.
Biden, now 82, dropped out of the race after a highly-criticized debate performance.
Trump, now 78, defeated Kamala Harris, 60. He is the oldest person ever elected president.
After Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s age came into question, the Kentucky senator decided to step down from party leadership, but he remains in office.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did the same thing in 2022.
McConnell is 82 and Pelosi is 84.
“Seniority is what makes Washington work,” said Bud Kennedy, political columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You don’t get anywhere with term limits in Washington. You get somewhere by staying forever.”
While the American political machine doesn’t reward youth, the American public seems to crave it.
A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found 87% of American adults would like a limit to the number of terms members of Congress can serve.
The survey found 79% also support an age limit for elected officials in DC.
“Look, I think term limits would be a good thing,” Macowiak said. “How you get that through Congress, I don’t know.”
“The other side of the argument is that the voters provide term limits because they can determine whether someone deserves to be re-elected or not. You could almost say the voters put a term limit on President Biden.”
Texas does have a mandatory retirement age for elected judges.
They cannot run for re-election again once they hit 75.
In 2023, voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have raised that age to 79.
Because that failed, the chief justice on the Texas Supreme Court could not run for re-election in 2024.