Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Democrat who represents Washington, D.C, in the House of Representatives, told NBC News on Tuesday that she’s running for re-election again next year. Her place as a fixture on the Hill was evident when reporter Sahil Kapur asked if she’d be on the ballot next fall: “I’m gonna run. I don’t know why anybody would even ask me.”
Indeed, for many years, the question would have been unnecessary: Norton has served as a nonvoting delegate in Congress since 1991, she has been overwhelmingly re-elected by D.C. voters, and she has shown no interest in stepping aside. But these days, there are plenty of reasons to ask about her plans for next year, starting with the fact that she turned 88 this week. That makes her the oldest member of the House — and when you consider that the 119th Congress is the third oldest in American history, that’s really saying something.
These days, there are plenty of reasons to ask about her plans for next year, starting with the fact that she turned 88 this week.
At the peak of her time in office, Norton worked to safeguard and strengthen the District of Columbia’s limited ability to govern itself, helping pull the city out of the hole financially and advocating for D.C. statehood. But an April profile of her in Washingtonian magazine laid bare how much the once-vigorous champion of her hometown has largely receded from public view. Her appearances in committee, the only place where she can vote on bills, have become brief and pro forma. Given the assault President Donald Trump and Norton’s Republican colleagues have launched against D.C. home rule and the federal agencies that employ many of its residents, it’s a bad time for Washingtonians to not have someone going to the mat for them.
The concerns the Washingtonian profile raised have only grown louder since then, with more of her fellow Democrats opting to go on the record to air them. Last week, The Washington Post reported that four of the 13 members of the D.C. Council have expressed concern about her fitness to continue serving, with three of them saying she should step aside. Even the person who ran Norton’s first campaign for delegate went public with her doubts:
Donna Brazile, a longtime Democratic strategist and one of Norton’s closest confidants, said in an interview that the delegate is aware of the concerns and is now mulling whether to run for reelection next year. “It’s time to turn things over. You’ve done it all,” Brazile said of her friend.
If Brazile was being on the level with the Post, it seems Norton’s “mulling” was brief.
Either way, it only highlights the Democratic Party’s ongoing struggles with gerontocracy in its ranks. Nobody wants to be the one seen shoving old-timers out the door or be accused of ageism — but three members of the House Democratic Caucus have died since the term began in January. The issue is compounded when it comes to older Black elected officials, many of whom owed their rise through the ranks to their caucus’ seniority-based system.
The very fact that Norton may well run and win again speaks to how little value is placed in the seat she holds. The very fact that Norton may well run and win again speaks to how little value is placed in the seat she holds. It is one of the nation’s darker ironies that the residents of its capital are unrepresented in Congress. When the District first gained a delegate in 1970, The New York Times said the role “will, in effect, be a full‐time paid lobbyist for the voteless people in the city of Washington.” The first such lobbyist, Walter Fauntroy, served for 10 terms, stepping down in 1990 to run for mayor. The second is Eleanor Holmes Norton. For the vast majority of my lifetime, she has been the only federal elected representative that Washingtonians have had. It’s only because I, a D.C. native by birth, left Washington that I have voting members of the House and the Senate to speak on my behalf. As many recent major votes have spotlighted, the margin separating majority from minority in the House has been exceedingly slim for the last several Congresses. If D.C. had a full voting representative, control over that seat would likely be considered a major Democratic priority, and her ineffectiveness might get the spotlight treatment that other even more embarrassing — and consequential — examples of gerontocracy deserved. Instead, Norton is the owner of a second-class seat, and her diminishment is treated as an irrelevancy. But vote or no vote in Congress, Norton’s determination to stay in office in effect leaves her hundreds of thousands of constituents even more vulnerable to Congress’ further stripping them of the right to govern themselves. It would be a sad end to an otherwise sterling legacy. Better that Norton listens to those around her asking her to step down, giving a chance for the people she’s loyally served to appoint a new guardian.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW Daily. 
