Outrage erupts after sitting member of Congress found in dementia living care home after being missing for months

A sitting member of Congress was found in a dementia living care home after not making a public appearance for months, and some online expressed outrage over the incident.

Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas was first elected to the U.S. House in 1997 and announced in late 2023 that she was not seeking re-election. She also abruptly stepped down from the powerful House Appropriations Committee and last cast a vote in July.

‘We have a sclerotic gerontocracy.’

An investigative reporter with the Dallas Express was unable to find the 81-year-old’s whereabouts until he got a tip that the congresswoman had been admitted to a local memory care facility in Fort Worth after she was allegedly found wandering and lost.

Many online reacted with anger over the revelation.

“I’ve knownKay Granger since she was a school teacher. Whatever you think of her politics, whoever made the decision to hide her condition from her constituents ought to be shoveling out horse stalls tomorrow,” responded journalist Jody Dean.

“Records show she has a staff of 25. If any of them knew – and it would be hard not to know – they are complicit,” replied Angela Morabito.

Some used the incident to call for term limits.

“Kay Granger’s long absence reveals the problem with a Congress that rewards seniority & relationships more than merit & ideas. We have a sclerotic gerontocracy,” said Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a Democrat. “We need term limits. We need to get big money out of politics so a new generation of Americans can run and serve.”

Granger’s son confirmed to the Dallas Morning News that his mother was living at the Tradition-Clearfork center but said she was in the independent living wing and not the memory care wing. However, he admitted that Granger had been “having some dementia issues late in the year.”

Her office released a statement denying that she was in memory care and also released a statement from the congresswoman.

“As many of my family, friends, and colleagues have known, I have been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year,” read the statement from Granger.

She added that “health challenges have progressed making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable,” since September.

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