Absent Republican Congresswoman Found in Nursing Home: Report

Republican Rep. Kay Granger, who has missed 100 percent of the House vote since July 24, is in an assisted living and nursing home, according to a report.

Staff writer Carlos Turcios wrote in The Dallas Express that he “received a tip from a Granger constituent who reported that the congresswoman has been living in a local nursing and assisted living facility for some time after she was found lost and confused in her former Cultural District/West 7th neighborhood “So he started looking for Granger.

Turcios reported calls to Granger’s DC and district office went straight to voicemail. He noted that their district office was empty and “there was no indication that the office remained occupied.” Employees in the building that housed their district office said their staff closed the office before Thanksgiving.

Following the tip, Turcios visited the assisted living and memory care facility, where two staff members confirmed she was living there.

“This is their home,” Taylor Manziel, assistant manager of Tradition Senior Living in Fort Worth, told Turcios in a video posted on The Dallas Express website.

Granger was seen publicly in Washington, DC on November 18 for the unveiling of her new portrait, which now hangs in the main hearing room of the House Budget Committee. Granger became chairwoman in January 2023 and announced she would step down from the post in March this year. She announced that she would not seek re-election to Congress in October 2023.

The page on Granger’s congressional website that once listed all of Granger’s votes now displays an error message: “The page you requested does not exist or is under routine maintenance.”

A snapshot of this page taken by the Internet Archive on December 16, 2024 shows that Granger last cast a vote on July 24, 2024, when she opposed an amendment that would reduce Ya-Wei (Jake) Li’s salary would. Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs, at $1. She missed the rest of the votes that day and has not voted since.

Rolling Stone emailed Granger’s communications director but received an out-of-office message saying they will have “limited access to email” “until” January 2, 2025.

Granger isn’t the only MP reportedly suffering from memory problems. Numerous reports from 2022 stated that aides to Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was then in her late eighties, attempted to hide the senator’s failing memory. In public, Feinstein found it difficult to remember her colleagues’ names and often forgot recent interactions.

In recent weeks, both House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Emeritus Mitch McConnell, both also in their 80s, suffered falls. Pelosi returned home four days ago after a hip replacement at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, which was necessary after she fell and injured herself at an event in Luxembourg. McConnell fell during a Senate Republican luncheon, spraining his wrist and injuring his face. McConnell was reportedly working from home after the incident.

Some have also criticized House Democrats for choosing 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connelly, who was recently diagnosed with cancer, to chair the House Oversight Committee, rather than the much younger Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

At the start of the 118th Congress, the average age of members of the House of Representatives was 57.9 years old and the average age of members of the Senate was 64 years old, according to the Congressional Research Service. A 2023 poll found that 40 percent of voters supported a maximum age limit of 75 for members of Congress, while 23 percent supported a maximum age limit of 65. 22 percent rejected setting an age limit.