On Wednesday morning, it was announced that US Congressman Sylvester Turner had died. He was seventy years old.
Turner died only hours after attending President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night. His family said he died at home in Washington, D.C., of “enduring health complications.”
Turner served as Houston’s 62nd mayor before representing Texas’ 18th congressional district. He also served in the Texas House of Representatives.
When it was confirmed that Turner had died, countless Americans returned to his social media pages. They noticed that he issued a significant warning to the Trump administration.
Sylvester basically told Trump, “Don’t mess with Medicaid.”
“My message to the current administration for tonight’s State of the Union: ‘Don’t mess with Medicaid.’ I am proud to have Angela Hernandez here from our Congressional district as my guest,” Turner wrote on X. “She is representing and advocating for her daughter Baislee Garcia who has a rare genetic disorder Chromosome 8p: Inversion/Duplication/Deletion.
“To be clear, any Medicaid cuts are a direct attack on families like Angela’s. President Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to eliminate Medicaid are nothing short of a betrayal of the most vulnerable among us. They are playing politics with children’s lives, and I will not tolerate it.”
Turner battled bone cancer while he was mayor of Houston. By the end of 2022, he had declared himself cancer-free.
The Turner family issued a brief statement on Wednesday regarding his death.
“Congressman Turner was a consummate public servant. But to us, he was a beloved father, grandfather, sibling, and relative,” the family stated.
Our thoughts are with Turner’s loved ones.
