Absent US congresswoman has been dealing with ‘dementia issues’, family says

A Republican congresswoman from Texas has not cast a vote in the US House since July while she has been grappling with “dementia issues” and residing at a senior living facility, according to her family – something she did not disclose to the public before a Dallas media outlet figured out where she was during her prolonged absence.

Kay Granger, 81, has represented Texas’s 12th congressional district, which includes part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, since 1997. And beginning in January 2023 she spent more than a year as the chairperson of the powerful House appropriations committee.

But months after announcing her plans to retire when her term ended in early 2025, Granger largely disappeared from the public eye. Her congressional website shows her last vote was on 24 July, opposing a measure to reduce the salary of the deputy assistant administrator for pesticide programs to $1 just days after Joe Biden canceled his presidential re-election campaign over questions about his age and mental fitness.

That fact prompted a reporter with the Dallas Express to dig into where Granger was. Calls to her offices were going directly to voicemail, and there were no signs of ongoing business at her constituency office.

The reporter, Carlos Turcios, eventually received a tip from a local resident that Granger had moved into an assisted living center specializing in memory care. After going to the facility in question to determine whether Granger indeed lived there, the assistant executive director confirmed, “This is her home,” according to a story that Turcios published on Friday in the Dallas Express.

Granger’s son later reportedly told the Dallas Morning News that Granger was “having some dementia issues” and had moved into an independent senior living center with a memory care community on the same property. However, he disputed that she was being treated at the memory care community and said she was a resident of the independent living side of the property.

Neither Granger nor her staff could immediately be reached for comment on Sunday. The Morning News reported obtaining a statement from Granger’s office which conveyed gratitude for the public’s concern and stated that “unforeseen health challenges” had made traveling to Washington DC frequently “both difficult and unpredictable”.

Local and state Republican leaders were among those who said they were troubled over the reporting about Granger.

Bo French, the chairperson of the Tarrant county, Texas, Republican party, told the Dallas Express that the “lack of representation for [Granger’s district] is troubling to say the least”.

“Extraordinarily important votes” involving disaster relief, the debt ceiling and US-Mexico border have occurred since Granger’s last vote, French said. “And Kay Granger [was] nowhere to be found. … We deserve better.”

In a social media post, the Texas state Republican committee member Rolando Garcia added that Granger’s need to live in a memory care facility suggests she may have already been “in visible decline” when she successfully ran for re-election in 2022.

“A sad and humiliating way to end her political career,” Garcia wrote. “Sad that nobody cared enough to ‘take away the keys’ before she reached this moment. And a sad commentary on the congressional gerontocracy.”

The US House speaker Mike Johnson and the chamber’s majority leader Steve Scalise – both Louisiana Republicans – hailed Granger at an event honoring her in Washington DC in November. Johnson exalted her as “a champion for Texas”, “a faithful public servant” and “a loyal friend” while Scalise complimented her as “a tough-as-nails conservative”.

Earlier, in February, Johnson and Scalise both signed a statement saying one of “the most disturbing parts” of a special counsel report over Biden’s handling of classified documents addressed “how the president’s memory had … ‘significant limitations’”.

After Biden performed poorly in June in a debate against Trump and invited questions about his mental acuity, Johnson urged the president’s cabinet to consider invoking a constitutional amendment allowing for his replacement if he were deemed incapable of performing his duties.

Biden, 82, dropped out of the 5 November election on 21 July, or three days before Granger’s last recorded vote in Congress. He endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris, 60, to succeed him, though Donald Trump, 78, defeated her to secure a second presidency beginning in January.

Meanwhile, also in February, Granger’s fellow House Republicans demanded that US defense secretary Lloyd Austin testify before Congress for failing to immediately disclose to White the House a hospitalization due to complications resulting from a surgery to treat prostate cancer.

Texas state House representative Craig Goldman won election in November to take over Granger’s seat in Congress.

Granger was the first woman to serve as mayor of Fort Worth as well as to become a Republican member of Congress. She was instrumental in securing more military funding, in part because a Lockheed Martin plant builds F-35 fighter jets in her district.

On Friday, Granger’s Facebook page posted a picture of her with a group of aides described as “the best”.

The post was flooded with comments about the scandal broken by the Dallas Express, among them one that read: “Everyone who has played a part in hiding her and covering up the fact that she was missing and or knew that she was in … [a senior] living facility for dementia needs to be held accountable. This is disgusting.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting