Democratic Congressman and Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Passes Away

On Wednesday (March 5, 2025), Democratic Congressman and former mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, passed away at the age of 70. Turner died just hours after attending President Donald Trump’s speech in Congress. Representing Texas’s 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, Turner’s seat will be filled through elections in his district. Sylvester Turner served as Houston’s mayor from 2016 to 2024 and was elected congressman in 2024, succeeding Sheila Jackson Lee, who passed away last July at the age of 74. Without specifying the cause of death, a representative of the late congressman stated that Turner watched the entire nearly 100-minute-long speech by President Trump in Congress. Afterwards, he went to a hospital and later returned home, where he took his last breath. The House of Representatives currently has two other vacant seats previously held by Republicans Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, both from Florida, with elections scheduled for April 1st, where Republicans are expected to regain control.