US lawmaker absent from office for months is found living at memory care facility

Kay Granger, a sitting member of the US House of Representatives for Texas, was recently found to have been living in an assisted living facility for dementia patients for the past few months, after being missing from her Washington, DC, office since July.

The Republican Party representative has been in Congress for 27 years but has missed every vote in the House since July.

A local Texas reporter for the Dallas Express newspaper, Carlos Turcios, tracked down her whereabouts after her constituents reported that both her DC and local offices had not answered phone calls for months and that she was placed in a memory care facility after being found wandering.

Reporters visited the Tradition-Clearfork facility in Fort Worth, and employees confirmed that Granger is a resident there.

On Sunday, after the report was published, Granger’s office admitted that she has been having health issues, but denied that she is in memory care.

Granger’s office quoted her as saying that “as many of my family, friends and colleagues have known, I have been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year,” and that her “health challenges have progressed, making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable.”

US Rep. Kay Granger arrives at the Capitol in Washington, DC, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Granger’s son told CBS News that she is a resident at the Fort Worth facility, but said she is in the “independent wing” and not in memory care. However, he admitted that his mother has been “having some dementia issues late in the year.”

Granger is 81 years old, and is set to retire from Congress in January.

She has served as the representative for Texas’s 17th district since 1997, when she was elected as the first woman to represent Texas in the House of Representatives.