The District of Columbia’s congressional delegate told reporters twice last month she was running for reelection—only for her office to say otherwise (twice).
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has represented D.C. in the House since 1991, said on June 10 that she would be running for a 19th term. Hours later, though, spokesperson Sharon Nichols said Norton “wants to run again but she’s in conversations with her family, friends, and closest advisors to decide what’s best.”
That episode repeated itself two weeks later on June 25, when Norton told an NBC News reporter that she was running. Nichols then told Axios that a decision hadn’t been made, and that Norton “wants to run but is still discussing it with people closest to her.”
Nichols did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast about Norton’s political future.
Norton is a former law professor and civil rights leader who worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s and later helmed the New York City Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Coalition. Those credentials have helped her handily win re-election in the district over the years, but in the past month, questions have arisen about her acuity.
Colleagues and friends of Norton told The New York Times that they have observed her decline, while D.C. council members told The Washington Post that retirement would be appropriate. At 88, Norton is older than any voting member of the House.
Regardless of what Norton decides, the re-election campaigns of other congressional Democrats in their eighties hasn’t done much to quell concerns about the future of the party. Neither has how the last seven members of Congress to die in office were all Democrats.
In May, Norton was reportedly considering running for the post of ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, but ultimately decided against it. Rep. Gerry Connolly, who was on leave from that post at the time, died later that month.
