Republican US Representative Kay Granger, who represents the 12th Congressional District of Texas, last voted in the US House on July 24, 2024. Not only was it the last time she voted, it was the last time she was present in the US House yet she was never listed as an absentee. As keeper of the “Flip It Blue” spreadsheets, I keep an eye on absentees and Kay Granger was not listed. She also failed to turn up for almost a month between June 28 and July 23.
She’d been promoted from Ranking Member to Chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee at the beginning of the 118th Congress in 2023. But on March 22, 2024, Granger announced she’d be stepping down from the position.
“As I reflect on my time in the House of Representatives and more than 5 years as Ranking Member and now Chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, I realize I have accomplished more than I ever could have imagined,” Granger wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
It’s a lovely statement but it doesn’t say why she was stepping down and if her reasons were included in that letter, it was never made public. She did add that she’d remain in the chair until a replacement was selected by the Republican Steering Committee, and thereafter as an adviser.
“My goal for the next nine months is to return to where I began my career, as an educator,” she wrote. “I will remain on the Committee as Chair Emeritus to lead as a teacher would, providing advice and counsel for my colleagues when it is needed.”
Granger remained Chair until April 15 when Rep Tom Cole succeeded her. But her role as Chairwoman Emerita lasted less than 3 months.
To leave the top committee job after little more than a year was distinctly unusual. To then unobtrusively leave Congress halfway through the year was downright mysterious.
Yet Kay Granger went AWOL without any explanation. Her district office was shuttered and phones went unanswered in both her district and DC offices yet her absence remained unnoted and unremarked.
Then local reporter Carlos Turios became curious about Granger’s whereabouts when he heard locals asking, “Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?” He tried her district and DC offices but the calls went directly to voicemail. From his report for The Dallas Express:
We then visited her office in person hoping to understand how Congresswoman Granger planned to vote on the continuing resolution this afternoon. Upon arrival, we found the door locked, front door glass window covered, no one inside, and no sign of the office continuing to be occupied.
At the building where the district office is located, Turios asked employees what had happened to Rep Granger’s office and was told her team had packed up and closed the office for good before Thanksgiving.
Further enquiries then uncovered this surprising information:
We then received a tip from a Granger constituent who shared that the Congresswoman has been residing at a local memory care and assisted living home for some time after having been found wandering lost and confused in her former Cultural District/West 7th neighborhood.
Turcios followed up with a visit to the facility where Taylor Manziel, the Assistant Executive Director for the senior accommodation confirmed, “This is her home.”
There is no question that Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans knew about this and deliberately covered it up. It was covered up too by her staff. Worse still, it was covered up by corporate mainstream media.
Why the cloak of secrecy? Because it came at a precarious time for a shrinking Republican majority.
With Santos’ expulsion on December 1, 2023, and McCarthy’s resignation on December 31, the Republican majority slipped from 222 to 220 with Democrats on 213. It was still a comfortable cushion for the Republicans but more was to come.
On January 21, 2024, Rep Bill Johnson resigned to become President of Youngstown State University. The special election was set for June 11. R: 219 to D: 213
On February 13, George Santos’s expulsion resulted in a special election win for the Democrats in NY-03. R: 219 to D: 214
On the same day, Kay Granger announced stepping down from the Chair, Ken Buck resigned after only 10 days’ notice. R:218 to D: 214
Mike Gallagher resigned on April 25, too late for a special election so this seat remained vacant until the general election. R: 217 to D: 214
At the time, there was a rumour circulating that Kay Granger would also resign early. Had she done so, the numbers would have been R: 216 to D: 214 before special elections began to fill vacant seats. That was far too close for comfort for a fractured Republican conference that barely managed to rise to mediocre on the performance scale. So when Kay Granger failed to appear, the Republicans covered up her absence and the US media failed to report it.
In response to this line in Radio WCBM’s report,
It remains unclear why Granger’s relatives or staff declined to disclose her condition to the public.
podcaster Jesse Dollemore exclaimed, “Does it ‘remain unclear’?” He continued,
Doesn’t seem very unclear to me. They [Republicans] want power and they’re liars and they act like, “We’re gonna spend the public’s money well” but she’s not doing her job. They’re not doing their job.” […] Republicans are liars and hypocrites.
They didn’t lie to protect Kay Granger’s privacy; they lied to protect their razor-thin majority. They lied to protect their power. There was no motive to help Ms Granger; they used her to help themselves and completely reneged on their responsibility to her constituents. They are shameful.
But beyond the deceitful behaviour of the Republicans is the role played by mainstream media. We now have solid evidence of their toxic alliance with the GOP. We now know they colluded with House Republicans and Republican staff to cover up that a Congress member was missing for six months.
We cannot know what they are still covering up for the GOP, only that they are willing to cover up for them because they have covered up for them.
As for Kay Granger, I wish her comfort in her declining years. I am glad she is with people caring for her because her political party didn’t. When she needed understanding and support, they hid her from view like an embarrassing relative. Regardless of her political beliefs, Kay Granger deserved better.
Having met the evil entity that rules supernatural darkness in a near death experience 50 years ago,(for those who scoff…I was one of you prior to that), an experience that blew up my cultural indoctrination of our ‘rational’, scientific, materialistic BELIEFS, I wonder when the scales will fall from the rich Democrat’s eyes, revealing they are gambling with true EVIL? Oh, and you ‘scoffers’, with DEATH waiting for each of us…you are just another indoctrinated cult member denying the mystery YOU WILL BE CAST INTO. Your ‘certainty’ is truly laughable. By the way where can I get a 200k gig to pay me while I’m NOT AT WORK? She is in an institution for her own safety…should you be making laws when you can’t cross the street without an aide? You have to tip your hat to evil…it doesn’t play and takes no prisoners,(until the end that is). The democrats are too busy trying to be ‘good’. Someone said the road to hell is paved with the skulls of priests…in our time it’s paved with the skulls of democrats. Like Don McLean…I can hear the devil laughing the day the music and our democracy died. Check your scripture to see who is loose on the earth with the intent to drive us all into despair and hopelessness. FAFO. FA complete…check. FO…darkness on the edge of town. Good luck.
Mr Jackson,
What are you going on about?
“I was one of you prior to that” — one of who? Atheists? Agnostics? Animists? Buddhists? Rastafarians? Goth Punks?
I’m sorry you live near a Hell Mouth. Sounds rough.
Are you a Demon Slayer? Do you need one? Maybe you should call Buffy for Slayer help — she kinda specialized in Hell Mouths …
https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Hellmouth
*sigh*
Your name is at least honest. I was one of many who thought all that talk in the Bible about evil entities was just superstition, and I studied four years with Biblical scholars at UNC, along with scholars erudite in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. I bet you think you are an ‘expert’. By the way, it’s not only the Abrahamic religions that wrote about supernatural evil,(Judaism, which includes the Jewish sect of the first century that believed Jesus rose from the dead, called ‘Christians’ as a slur by the Romans much later, and Islam). There are examples in the oldest belief systems like Zoroastrian religion, and the eastern belief systems. Nothing anyone believes captures the reality. You too are one day closer to death, and your sarcasm is laughable since the mystery awaits. Buffy? Demon slayer? Hell Mouth? So tv and video games are your instructors? Are you a teenager? Good news ‘confused’…the day you die your confusion will cease. So will your unbelief. As Keneau Reeves said in Constantine to the ‘rational’ detective when she stated: people. people are evil Mr. Constantine, I don’t believe in the Devil. He replied: you should. He believes in YOU. The irony in our culture is we make evil into entertainment and have NO RESPECT for the consequences. So we put evil in charge even after witnessing it in action for nine years. FAFO. Tick phucking tock! How’s it feel inching toward the grave? Let me know when it becomes real for you.
Whoops…touched a nerve. No problem. Head back to the ‘waking dream’ as the Gita mentions. zzzzzzzzzz.
Wow. You could use a good colonic. Maybe more fiber? You are obviously constipated … Sounds unpleasant … Who are you talking to?
There have been so many times I was able to set aside conspiracy stories because the issue would have taken far too many people keeping it hidden in a world of leakers! Just as with so many truths I used to find comforting, those days are over! The entire world of Republicans, including their staffs and families, have destroyed any innocent, trusting naivete I was still desperately clinging to!!
I feel the same, Cleora. This story really got to me, not only because they callously took advantage of an ill woman, but also because of all the people involved, including the media! I keep an eye on the Press Gallery page and not once did they report that she was absent.
Ms. Dale,
Thanks very much for this article. I really respect that you are watching these rosters and be able to notice this event as a “non-event”. My dad was a journalist in the 1970’s and this strikes me as a story he would follow.
It certainly is something completely off my radar and that makes sense. As you say, the point *is* to keep it off the radar and avoid disclosure of just how fragile the actual Republican legislative position is: far from a mandate, as you say, and only slimmer margins from there.
My dad used to say legislative work was more like horse-trading than anything else and emphasized the importance of the Great Compromise. Your article highlights the current efforts to get around that compromise as well as the logistical difficulty if doing that, and I think it’s a vital consideration for the next few years.
Thanks much for the tracking and the reporting!
Thank you for this comment, I really appreciate it. Your Dad was right about legislative work and I’m sure he’d be horrified at how they’ve sunk even further.
I’m very apprehensive about America’s future and I will continue watching and reporting what I see.
The initial releases on this story all seemed to focus on the attack on older Americans and age restrictions, instead of the tragedy of a woman disappearing from view and no one noticing. Now we find the GQP knew but kept silent for nefarious purposes. Double shame on them. We always think there’s a low that they won’t go to, but gravity seems to work double time when it comes to them. They ALWAYS go lower!
These comments show the real difference between D and R.
A senior R politician descends into mental decline.
R response: How can we use this to keep us in power, and we must keep it secret.
D response: How can we help this poor woman?
That is the difference between the two parties in a nutshell.
so should we be checking on everyone noted as “not voting” on a piece of legislation?
It would be a daunting task. I’m wondering how time-consuming it would be to set up a spreadsheet…
This is sad and the coverup is evil. Are we taxpayers still paying for her salary and insurance?
Michelle, you should be a permanent staff writer for PZ.
In fairness to PZ, they’d love me to write more often, but I write when I write. I do a lot of research, so an article can take me a day or two to pull together.
This one was special because I remembered the rumours about Kay Granger circulating back in April. I wish I’d kept a closer eye on her then but a lot was going on and it never occurred to me then that they’d cover it up if she did leave.