Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee questions U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan during testimony in the House Committee on Homeland Security in a hearing focused on closing pathways for terrorists to enter the U.S. in Washington, D.C., September 14, 2016. CBP Photo by Glenn Fawcett
It appears that even death cannot stop Democratic lawmakers from social media posting.
According to a report from Politico, many prominent accounts of deceased members of Congress remain active on social media.
This phenomenon has become increasingly widespread over the past year, as lawmakers who have passed away continue to like, comment, and even change their profile pictures months or even years after their passing.
Social media users have picked up on the activity of numerous individuals. The most recent example is that of Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly, who died of esophageal cancer last month.
Among the activity Connolly’s accounts have engaged in include urging people to go out and vote. That post has since been deleted.
Those with access to his accounts have also continued to take advantage of his mailing list, using it to solicit donations for the campaign of his replacement.
Meanwhile, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas liked an Instagram post congratulating the communist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on his win in the Democratic primary.
Example: “After Zohran Mamdani’s apparent victory in the New York Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) liked an Instagram post congratulating him on his win.
The only problem — Jackson Lee died last July.” https://t.co/R7k7PpRCh1
— Brit Hume (@brithume) June 28, 2025
Lee’s successor, Rep. Sylvester Turner, has followed a similar pattern.
After serving just two months in office, he passed away in March. However, his account recently celebrated the start of the MLB season.
It was therefore left to X’s Community Notes feature to remind users that Turner was no longer alive.
Happy #OpeningDay!#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/hhRqBX1aYc
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) March 27, 2025
It remains mostly unclear who has control of these accounts and for what purposes they intend to use it moving forward.
The report notes:
How to handle the social media presence of politicians when they die is a fairly new phenomenon. If a member of the House dies, for example, their office often remains open to fulfill constituent services — and sometimes continues posting to social media, albeit not typically under the lawmaker’s name.
And there’s even less clarity around lawmakers’ social media accounts that they use for campaigning, as opposed to official work.
Zack Brown, who was the communications director for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) when he died in office in March 2022, said there is no official process for handing off control of lawmakers’ social media accounts if they die while still serving. That leaves communications staff in an awkward bind on how to proceed with languishing accounts, he said.
Although there were content rules on what staff members were allowed to post to Young’s accounts — political, policy-related and ideological posts were off-limits — there was no guidance on what to do with the accounts themselves.
The most likely explanation is that those managing the accounts are seeking to exploit the deceased’s following.
Yet most netizens seem to agree: such a practice is creepy, unnecessary, and in some cases, outright unethical.
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