There’s not much to update on Senate demographics… yet…. but there was a recent death in the House, and an accident:
6 January 2026, CalMatters: Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a steadfast advocate for California’s North State, dies at 65
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a fourth generation rice farmer and Republican who represented much of California’s rural north in Congress, has died in office, setting off a scramble to replace him ahead of the November midterm election. He was 65.
His unexpected death Tuesday further shrinks the party’s already razor-thin majority in Congress, which now stands at 218 following Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation. The GOP can now only afford to lose two members on any party-line vote.
LaMalfa’s passing also sets up a potentially confusing scenario for his constituents in the 1st Congressional District, one of the five that were significantly redrawn under the voter-approved Proposition 50 last year.
Under California law, Gov. Gavin Newsom must call a special election within 14 days to fill the remainder of LaMalfa’s term. That election will take place using the existing congressional district map, a seat that stretches from much of the Oregon-California border through rural Shasta and Sutter counties and strongly favors Republicans.
6 Jan 2026, KDRV: New details and information released on the death of Congressman Doug LaMalfa
Congressman Doug LaMalfa was rushed to Enloe Health in Chico on Monday after a medical emergency took place at his home in Richvale.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office says that they received a 911 call from LaMalfa’s residence around 6:50 p.m. on Monday night. The call was transferred to medical personnel, who arrived at the scene and transported Congressman LaMalfa to the hospital.
Upon arrival at Enloe Health, LaMalfa was taken into emergency surgery, where he later passed away. Friends close to LaMalfa told Action News Now that he had been experiencing stomach pain and then suffered from a local aortic aneurysm, a condition where part of the aorta becomes weak and balloons outward in one spot.
….
Multiple members of Congress indicated LaMalfa suffered a heart attack during surgery. Meanwhile, the Butte County Coroner’s Office is investigating the cause of death, with a forensic pathologist scheduled to perform an autopsy on LaMalfa.
The Wikipedia article on Doug LaMalfa’s death currently says “heart attack” as the cause of death, using the favored Wikipedia source Politico. I have a feeling we can wait a few weeks for a formal ruling on this [aortic aneurysm leading to cardiac event, etc.]
In any case, that’s down one Republican representative (for now). With 435 representatives that had an age distribution that looked like this last year:
Yeah, you expect a few deaths every year.
I didn’t even put the sex-related lopsidedness, which would place the expected number of deaths higher than if it were 50/50 male/female split.
In addition: 6 Jan 2026, Politico: Indiana congressman Jim Baird and wife hospitalized after car crash
Indiana Rep. Jim Baird and his wife are being hospitalized following a serious car crash, President Donald Trump confirmed in televised comments to House Republicans on Monday.
“They’re going to be OK, but they had a pretty bad accident,” Trump said at the top of his address to a House GOP legislative retreat, where he also paid tribute to the late California Rep. Doug LaMalfa following his sudden death Monday.
So that’s another representative down, though not dead. Not exactly available for votes.
Updated 2020s House Deaths Table
Yes, there is such a table in Wikipedia, but I like the way I format my table better:
You can see that three Democrats (Texas, Arizona, Virginia) died in 2025, and since then:
The last to die, Gerry Connolly, was the first to be replaced — James Walkinshaw won a special election in Virginia’s 11th district in September 2025 and was seated in the House on September 10, 2025.
Raúl Grijalva’s daughter Adelita Grijalva was elected in a special election to replace him in the 7th district of Arizona (seated Nov 12, 2025).
Sylvester Turner, the first to die in 2025, has yet to be replaced. A special election was held in November 2025, but no candidate received enough votes to win outright. Two Democrats are remaining for a run-off election on January 31, 2026.
So here is the full list of currently vacant House seats:
California 1 — Republican Doug MLaMalfa’s death.
Georgia 14 — resignation of ex-Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. Special election in March.
New Jersey 11 — vacated by the current Democratic governor of New Jersey. Special election will be held in April.
Texas 18 — Democrat Sylvester Turner’s death, special election run-off at the end of January.
Of course, there’s an election for all the seats in November, but more on that after we look at the current age distribution for the 431 remaining representatives.
Age Distribution in the House, January 2026
Distribution of Ages in House of Representatives by Party, January 2026
There hasn’t been a new full election since the last time, so it’s mainly a case of aging (yes, a few deaths, but that’s just a couple).
For a few key stats:
Median age:
Democrats: 57
Republicans: 58
Mean age:
Democrats: 58.5
Republicans: 57.3
Modal age:
Democrats: 49 (9 reps)
Republicans: 55 (10 reps)
Average Age of Representative by State, January 2026
Obviously, in some of these cases, the states have only one representative and we’re seeing the age of that person.
There may have been some deliberate shifts in the ages of the congressional delegations in some states — more Millennials getting into the game, so good for them.
Upcoming Election
There is an election coming up this November, you may have heard.
I will get to the Senate soon enough, but for the House, the representatives are all up for election.
People have complained about the advantage that incumbents have, but they don’t have much advantage when the ravages of time take their toll.
Mortality rates exceed 1% for the overall population for ages 58 for males and 64 for females in the general population (check out the Social Security life tables), so you can expect a few people to die out of the 435 in the House each year, even with a better-than-1% expected mortality in the House.
It’s only to be expected.
If anything, the mortality of the House is a little lower than the general population, from what I can tell. I didn’t break out the House age distribution by sex, but if I thought something odd was going on, I’d definitely do that.
Age is far more of a deciding factor on mortality than sex — that the average age is about 58 is far more relevant in estimating the expected number of deaths per year than the sex ratio.
I will update the Senate age distribution graph soon. Senators aren’t all up for re-election each time, but they tend to be far older than the House.
That has consequences.
Spreadsheet
Related Posts
16 Oct 2025: Falls are Dangerous: RIP, Ace Frehley and Watch Out, Sen. McConnell
5 Sep 2025: Political Candidate Deaths: Seven German AfD politicians die within weeks of each other ahead of elections
25 May 2025: Political Mortality Update: Yes, A THIRD Democratic Representative Died in 2025
10 Apr 2025: Congressional Mortality Has Consequences
20 Jan 2025: Falls are Dangerous for Seniors: Nancy Pelosi and Pope Francis
25 Jan 2025: 2025 Update on Senate Demographics
20 Jul 2024: RIP, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: An Update on Pancreatic Cancer Death Trends
Sep 2023: Politicians: Don’t Tempt the Reaper
April 2022: All Men Must Die, But They Don’t Have to Die in Office
May 2023: A Sampling of Political Mortality