By Aileen Graef, Aleena Fayaz, CNN
(CNN) — Eleanor Holmes Norton, the longtime nonvoting delegate for Washington, DC, moved Sunday to end her House reelection campaign as the 88-year-old Democrat faces questions about her fitness for office.
Norton’s campaign filed a notice of termination to the Federal Election Commission on Sunday. CNN has reached out to Norton’s office for comment on the filing.
Norton’s age and infrequent public appearances have prompted questions in recent months about her suitability for office as the capital city’s autonomy has been threatened during the second Trump administration.
As President Donald Trump has sought to imprint his vision on DC, making changes to public institutions, surging in federal law enforcement, and deploying the National Guard, questions have loomed about the balance between DC’s autonomy and federal oversight in the capital. Despite lacking the ability to vote, the singular DC delegate’s voice gets amplified through floor debates and congressional committees.
Norton’s filing, first reported by NOTUS, comes after her former senior legislative counsel Trent Holbrook announced this month that he planned to run for his former boss’s seat.
“I don’t see myself as running against Congresswoman Norton,” Holbrook told CNN at the time. “I just don’t think that she is going to run again, at least not an effective way.”
Norton, a born Washingtonian, has placed civil rights work at the center of her career. Before her 18 terms in Congress, Norton was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to serve as the first woman to chair the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Norton, the oldest sitting House member, is among a growing group of politicians whose ages have sparked debates over term limits in Congress.
Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee chair and the delegate’s former chief of staff, in September published an op-ed in The Washington Post in which she discouraged her close friend from seeking reelection, stating that Norton is “no longer the dynamo she once was.”
“It’s in her best interest, and the interest of D.C., for her to serve her current term but then end her extraordinary service in Congress and not seek reelection next year,” Brazile wrote.
The race for DC’s congressional seat includes more than a dozen candidates seeking the office held by Norton since 1991. Among those vying for the seat are DC State Board of Education President Jacque Patterson, Democratic National Committee official Kinney Zalesne, and DC Councilmembers Brooke Pinto and Robert C. White Jr.
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