(Headline USA) Democrats have been dropping like flies lately.
Two days after a sitting member of Congress died in office, former U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a long serving New York Democrat, died at the age of 87.
Lowey’s family, in a statement shared by the Westchester County Democratic Committee, said she died Saturday after battling metastatic breast cancer with the “same tenacity and strength that she fought throughout her 32-year career in Congress for women, children and families.”
The family said she passed away peacefully in her home in Harrison, New York, surrounded by her husband, children and grandchildren. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who served with Lowey in Congress, ordered flags flown at half-staff Sunday through Monday in honor of her former colleague.
Lowey represented suburban communities north of New York City, including parts of Westchester County and the Hudson River Valley.
She was elected to Congress in 1988 and served until she opted to retire rather than seek reelection in 2020.
Lowey died two days after Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., passed away Thursday—making him the second Democrat to die in office in as many weeks.
Grijalva died of complications from cancer treatment, his office said in a statement. The treatments had sidelined him from Congress in recent months.
He stepped down as the top Democrat on the Natural Resources committee earlier this year, after announcing that he planned to retire rather than run for reelection in 2026.
Another Democratic House member, Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas, died last week from health issues.
Turner, in turn, had replaced U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died last July after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
