The last eight members of Congress to die in office have all been Dems

[Arazi]

No comment.

Just an observation.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Why can't Don

just drop dead at one of his stupid press conferences?

[Arazi]

2. More

With Connolly's death, six House Democrats have died in office in the past 13 months. Democrats die in office at twice the rate of Republicans: of the 45 members of Congress who have died in office since the year 2000, 30 have been Democrats.

[Emile]

3. We need to attract younger politicians.

[RockRaven]

5. Incumbents are hard to beat, even by qualified and charismatic opponents.

Incumbents get more endorsements from other elected officials and also hold an innate fundraising advantage. The younger candidates are there, they just lose in the primaries or seek open offices.

Maybe what we need to attract is candidates who know when to retire.

[Arazi]

4. And even more...

There are currently 16 octogenarians in the House of Representatives, and 13 of them are Democrats.

[BeyondGeography]

6. What an ableist ageist thing to say

[tritsofme]

7. I've always thought it unseemly for a politician to choose to die in office.

Like McCain or Ted Kennedy.

It’s not “their” seat, it belongs to the people, and at a certain point, a person becomes unable to provide the full representation voters deserve.

I had no idea Connolly was so close to death, but at least he was making plans to exit Congress next year.