Gerry Connolly, a longtime Democratic member of Congress from Northern Virginia known for his advocacy of the federal workforce, died Wednesday. He was 75 years old.
The longtime lawmaker’s death was announced by his family via a statement from his congressional office.
“We were fortunate to share Gerry with Northern Virginia for nearly 40 years because that was his joy, his purpose, and his passion,” the family said in its statement. “His absence will leave a hole in our hearts, but we are proud that his life’s work will endure for future generations.”
On April 28, Connolly said he would not seek reelection in 2026 and also said he would step down from his role as the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, saying his esophageal cancer had returned.
“The sun is setting on my time in public service, and this will be my last term in Congress,” he said in an email to his constituents, adding: “You all have been a joy to serve.”
Connolly had first revealed in November 2024 that he was being treated for cancer. But only weeks later, he won the nod to be the ranking Democrat on the Oversight panel, defeating Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in a closed door caucus vote.
The former chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors represented a Virginia district that was heavy on government workers, and he never flagged in his support for them.
“I also have one of the highest education levels of any district in the United States,” he said when seeking reelection in 2010. “They know how they’re employed; they know what generates economic activity. And it isn’t to say we embrace big bad government, not at all. We care about the deficit. I’m a deficit hawk. We believe the budget ought to come closer to balance — but not with a meat cleaver, with a scalpel.”
With President Donald Trump in office, the always expressive Connolly became one of the leading defenders of those who worked for the U.S. government. “Since day one,” he said in May 2025, “Trump and DOGE have wasted no time attacking the federal workforce, mercilessly slashing funding for life-saving services, and ripping away Americans’ access to basic necessities.”
Another area of interest was the world at large, all parts of it.
From 1979 to 1989, Connolly had served as staffer on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, publishing reports on American policy around the globe. In Congress, he served on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and in multiple congressional caucuses focused on relations with specific nations. In 2024, he was elected acting president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, an organization meant to respond to problems faced by member states of the transatlantic alliance.
“He has been relentless in his pursuit of establishing a Centre for Democratic Resilience at NATO headquarters, which will recognize the importance of strengthening democratic institutions across NATO allies and partner nations,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), a former NATO Parliamentary Assembly president, in April 2025.
Gerald Edward Connolly was born March 30, 1950, in Boston; like many Bostonians, his family had connections to the Kennedys.
“My dad was many things,” Connolly said when his father died in 2016, “a Boston Democratic ward committeeman and a delegate to the 1962 state convention that nominated Ted Kennedy to the U.S. Senate, which instilled a passion for politics and public service that remains with his family.”
The younger Connolly considered the priesthood, studying for several years at a seminary. “I wanted to be a priest. I grew up in an Irish Catholic home and was the product of a Catholic education. I liked the message of the church and wanted to help other people,” he said in a 2012 interview.
But, Connolly said, he came to believe the church was not political enough on the big issues of the day (including the Vietnam War), so he charted a new course. Connolly studied literature at Maryknoll College in Illinois, then headed to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
At the time of the 2012 interview, Connolly seemed to think he’d taken the right path.
“I’ve never lost an election,” he told James Cullum, “and that’s everything from being the president of my high school, president of my college, president of my graduate school at Harvard, a twice-elected national delegate, president of my freshman class in Congress and I’ve won eight elections. This will be my ninth. But I’m very wonkish. I really love public policy.”
Among those elections were the 1995 one that got elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the 2003 one that elevated him to the chair of the board and his 2008 race for an open House seat in which he defeated Republican Keith Fimian.
In a rematch in 2010, he barely won a rematch against Fimian in one of the closest races in the nation. “While trees were falling all over the woods, this one didn’t,” Connolly said after Fimian conceded.
Though Connolly won, that 2010 election did bring a new Republican House majority — and battles over cutting federal spending at least partially through reductions in the size of the government workforce. “The other side has decided they’re an easy punching bag, and it is outrageous on many, many scores,” he said in March 2012.
“He’s always been somebody that we could lean on,” Doreen P. Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, told The Washington Post at the time Connolly announced he was retiring.
Those fights over the size of the government would continue during the non-consecutive Trump presidencies. Connolly personally was not a fan of Trump. “I mean no disrespect,” he said of his decision to skip the 2017 inauguration. “This is about his behavior and his words that have caused so much harm.”
Connolly supported both the 2019 and 2021 efforts to impeach Trump.
“To extort a foreign country to investigate your political opponent is an unconstitutional abuse of power,” he said in December 2019. “To solicit foreign interference in an American election is an unconstitutional abuse of power.”
After Trump won a second term in 2024, Connolly was elected by his fellow House Democrats as their leader on the Oversight Committee. He promised to respond to whatever Republicans threw at them.
“He’s bright, he’s witty,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) at the time. “I’ve seen him on the Foreign Affairs committee, taking charge of the issue, particularly when the Republicans are overstepping, etc., as well as doing it in a way that brings us all together.”
While strongly partisan, Connolly drew praise not only from Democrats but from those on the other side of the aisle.
“We don’t always agree, but I will tell you, I think he is a tremendous legislator,” said committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) when Connolly announced his cancer had returned. “I think that Ranking Member Connolly is a role model for what a good member of Congress should be.”
For his part, Connolly advocated civility as an important element of life on Capitol Hill.
“Others may see political advantage in shouting, denigrating, and bitter ad hominem attacks. But they damage this House — the people’s House — when they do,” Connolly advised newly elected lawmakers in November 2010. “Civility and humor are all too often in short supply, but they have more positive staying powers.”
Two years later, he said his life in the public eye had transformed him from an introvert to “much more on the extroverted side.” Connolly seemed fine with that.
“I’m a big believer of what Teddy Roosevelt talked about — always being in the arena, not being one of those timid souls on the sidelines,” he said.
Read the full article here