88-Year-Old Democrat Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton Terminates Campaign For 19th Term

Longtime Democratic District of Columbia Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, filed notice Sunday ending her reelection bid for a 19th term — months after a police report described her as being in the “early stages of dementia.”

The non-voting delegate to Congress was first elected in 1990 and has since continually been re-elected with minimal opposition. Norton, who has said she intends to remain in the race several times in 2025 — though her own staff notably downplayed those comments — filed a termination report with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), effectively ending her candidacy, the News of the United States (NOTUS) reported Sunday. (RELATED: Eleanor Holmes Norton Can’t Walk a Few Feet Without Help)

Although the 35-year-old delegate’s re-election bid raised a meager $7.50 over the 25 days of 2026, she remained in the race; she spent just over $4,000 during the same period, according to the termination report. At the time the report was filed Sunday, Norton’s campaign had no cash on hand.

In the final three months of 2025, the now-closed campaign raised $2,520 and spent just under $5,000, according to an FEC report on receipts and disbursements obtained by NOTUS.

Norton’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

🚨 The House’s oldest member, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a non-voting delegate from Washington, D.C., first elected in 1990, has ended her re-election campaign.

From January 1 to January 25, Norton’s campaign raised just $7.50 while spending nearly $4,000, according to a layoff… pic.twitter.com/IpQa8HVbWE

– Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 25, 2026

Fraudsters went to Norton’s Washington residence in October 2025 and charged her credit card $4,000 for fake cleaning services. A police report filed on the incident stated that the delegate was “Deputy Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), 88 years old, black female, suffering from early stages of dementia.”

A spokesperson for Norton at the time told NBC4 Washington that the allegation that Norton had early-onset dementia was a “medical diagnosis” based “on an assumption that the reporting officer was not qualified to make.” The spokesperson, however, always refused to confirm or deny whether Norton actually suffered from this illness.

Before the 88-year-old delegate ended her campaign, she faced a large Democratic primary field for the first time since her first run nearly four decades ago. Norton’s primary opponents who remain in the race include DC Councilor Robert White, 43, and DC Councilwoman Brooke Pinto, 33. (RELATED: Trump’s ICE No. 2, 28, enters race to defeat a Democrat half a century older than her)

White, who entered the race against Norton in September 2025, said at the time that “like most people in Washington, we recognize that she [Norton] can no longer do the things she used to do,” POLITICO reported.

“Right now the District is vulnerable, and we are losing ground, and with only one member elected in this entire Congress, we need someone with the fight, the energy and the know-how,” White said at the time.

That same month, Donna Brazile, former acting chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), wrote an article for the Washington Post in which she argued that Norton, her former boss, should not run for office.

“She is no longer the dynamo she once was, at a time when DC needs the kind of energetic representation in Congress that she has provided for decades,” wrote Brazile, who was Norton’s campaign manager during her first delegate campaign in 1990, and her chief of staff during her first eight years in office.

Besides Norton, three remaining voting members of Congress born in the 1930s remain: Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, Kentucky Republican Rep. Hal Rogers and California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters. Rogers and Waters are both up for re-election in 2026. Grassley, 92, who has served in elected office continuously since the Eisenhower administration, is not up for re-election until 2028 but has filed paperwork to run.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan news service, is available free to any legitimate news publisher capable of delivering a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and DCNF affiliation. For questions about our guidelines or our partnership, please contact licenses@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.