Politics

You’re Not Imagining It: More Lawmakers Really Are Dying in Office

Thanks to better medicine, we had a temporary decrease in deaths in office. Then Congress got much, much older.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

On Wednesday, Rep. David Scott of Georgia joined a grim but growing trend among sitting members of Congress: He died.

Scott, 80, had served in Washington for more than two decades and was in the midst of running for reelection for what would have been his 13 th consecutive term. The Democrat’s office said his death was “unexpected” and did not give a cause, but Scott had faced questions about his health over the past few years.…