R.I.P.

Congressman, 70, Dies Weeks After Taking Office

He was just two months into his first term in Congress.

Sylvester Turner, the Democrat congressman from Texas and former mayor of Houston, has died. He was 70. Turner, who served almost three decades in the Texas House of Representatives before becoming the mayor of his home town between 2016 and 2024, was elected to the U.S. House in November. He was just two months into his term representing Texas’ 18th congressional district—a seat that was previously occupied by Sheila Jackson Lee, who died in July. News of Turner’s passing was reported by the Houston Chronicle, which did not disclose a cause of death. A source separately told the Texas Tribune that Turner died Tuesday night, with the outlet noting that the congressman had said in 2022 that he’d secretly been recovering from bone cancer and had subsequently become cancer-free. On Tuesday, a video posted on Turner’s X account appeared to show him in Washington, D.C., for President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.