The son of Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) confirmed that his mother has “dementia issues” that have kept her away from Congress in recent months, the Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
“It’s been a difficult year,” 52-year-old Brandon Granger said in the newspaper. He also said she was living at Traditions Senior Living in Fort Worth, Texas.
Kay Granger, 81, chaired the House Appropriations Committee until she left her position in April, making her absence especially noticeable during recent negotiations over legislation aimed at averting a government shutdown.
Her situation attracted attention after an article was published in The Dallas Express (“Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?”), which reported that Granger had lived at a local memory care facility for some time after he was found. wandering lost and confused in her former Cultural District/West 7th neighborhood.”
The publication noted that she had not voted in the House of Representatives since July.
A statement from Granger’s office specified that she is “not in memory care” but did not deny other elements of The Dallas Express article. (Her son also said she was not in a memory ward.) Brandon Granger told the Dallas Morning News, “There’s nothing wrong with someone wanting to live in a community with other people their age,”
Kay Granger’s office also released a statement from her:
“I am very grateful for the outpouring of care and concern over the past few days. As many of my family, friends, and colleagues know, I have faced a number of unforeseen health challenges over the past year. However, since early September my health problems have increased, making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable. During this time, my staff has remained steadfast and continued to provide exceptional service, as they have done for the past 27 years.”
Granger, who was first elected in 1996, announced in 2023 that she would not seek another term. Craig Goldman, a fellow Republican from Fort Worth, won the open seat in November.
News of her situation prompted some comments about the general age of American leadership. “I’m more concerned about the members of Congress who have dementia and are still voting,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X.
Others saw a larger structural problem.
“Kay Granger’s long absence reveals the problem with a Congress that rewards seniority and relationships more than merit and ideas. We have a sclerotic gerontocracy,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) wrote on X. “We need term limits. We need to get a lot of money out of politics so that a new generation of Americans can run and serve.”
