An 83-year-old House Democrat has missed votes in the chamber for a month due to an unspecified medical procedure, as her staff continued to post old pictures of her on social media.
Representative Frederica Wilson’s prolonged absence was first reported by Regular Order correspondent Jamie Dupree on Wednesday and was clarified by the House minority leader a day later.
The absence makes Wilson the second lawmaker to step away for weeks without explanation.
Wilson, a congresswoman in her eighth term representing Miami Beach and parts of north Miami, hasn’t attended a vote in the chamber since April 17.
On Tuesday, Wilson’s staff republished pictures of the congresswoman hosting an event honoring service academies at Florida International University from October 2025. The newest post did not specify that the photos were republished.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries addressed growing speculation about Wilson’s absence within the Capitol press corps on Thursday. “She’s recovering from a procedure, and I expect that she’ll be back shortly,” the minority leader told reporters, according to The Hill.
The congresswoman is running for a ninth term. The Independent has asked Wilson’s staff for further comment.
The scrutiny around her comes as older lawmakers and executives in Washington are increasingly under the microscope due to the “gerontocracy” reputation that the city has earned.
Under Joe Biden’s administration, those concerns reached a fever pitch and he was eventually forced to step down from the Democratic presidential ticket in response. But in more recent months, the pressure for older members of Congress to allow a younger generation to step up has been nearly as prevalent. Democrats have had multiple members die in office over the past two years, including the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, Gerry Connolly.
Connolly’s death last year marked a moment of reckoning for the Democratic caucus. He’d won re-election less than a week before announcing the diagnosis, and went on to claim the Oversight gavel over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and amid concerns about his health. His death triggered a special election in Virginia, but left Democrats with a wider gap in the chamber before it was filled. Two other Democratic House members died in office last year, Raul Grijalva and Sylvester Turner. Rep. David Scott, another Democrat who’d filed for re-election this year, died this April.
Wilson is the latest lawmaker to have a prolonged absence from the House/Senate. Hers follows the sudden disappearance of New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom Kean, who hasn’t been on the Hill for votes since March 5. Kean has issued one statement explaining his absence, more than a month after his last votes, telling voters that he is “address[ing] a personal medical issue”.
“I take my responsibilities seriously and have a strong record of showing up and delivering, which makes this absence all the more difficult,” said the congressman, who represents a district north of Trenton, New Jersey.
Speaker Mike Johnson, whose thin GOP majority could be endangered by Kean’s absence, also released a statement about the congressman in April after speaking with him.
“I was happy to speak to Tom Kean, Jr. this afternoon by phone. He is attending to a personal health matter and expects to be back to 100% very soon,” Johnson said in a statement released three days before Kean’s own was put out. “Tom is one of the most dedicated and hardest-working Members of Congress, and I am grateful for all he does and will continue to do to serve New Jerseyans and our country.”
Kean’s office insisted to journalists this week that he would be back “soon”. His performance and legislative record are under particular scrutiny this year, as a purple-district Republican, and Democrats are targeting New Jersey’s 7th district as a priority seat to pick up in November’s midterms. With the House currently at a 218-212 margin, a handful of absences or defections could spell defeat for any legislation that comes to the floor lacking bipartisan support.
“Congressman Kean is still attending to a personal health matter and we appreciate the outpouring of support,” Dan Scharfenberger told the outlet. “He will be returning to a regular full schedule soon. The Congressman’s team continues to serve the people of New Jersey uninterrupted.”
Republican leaders are reportedly less certain behind the scenes.
One senior leadership aide described House Republicans as still in the dark about their colleague: “I don’t have any idea what’s going on,” they told Punchbowl News this week, a notion the outlet reported on Thursday was shared by at least a half dozen members and senior staffers within the Republican House leadership circle.
Another laid out the fears of the conference to Punchbowl, explaining that the district’s importance in November necessitated more information than was being provided by Kean and his office. Kean’s district voted for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris by less than two percentage points in 2024. Wilson’s district in Florida, by comparison, voted for Harris by more than 30 points.
“This is about more than one person at this point; it’s about the vote and the ability to hold the seat in the fall. The answer can’t simply be ‘trust us’ when nothing about their behavior has inspired trust.”
A spokesperson for Kean’s office issued a response to that reporting on Thursday.
“There’s absolutely nothing to worry about,” Harrison Neely told Punchbowl. “Congressman Kean is going to be back to a full schedule very soon. He will be 100% healthy and is excited to get back to work.”
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