In late October, several people showed up at the home of Eleanor Holmes Norton for duct and fireplace cleaning. It was reportedly their third recent visit.

It’s unclear whether they knew Norton was the lone Washington, D.C., representative in Congress. What they did seem to know is that she was susceptible to fraud. Norton paid them $4,362 via credit card for work they never intended to do, and they scurried off. (The case remains unsolved.) Soon after, Norton’s campaign manager and treasurer, Jacqueline Pelt, notified the police. A responding officer from the Metropolitan Police Department met Pelt at the home and wrote up an incident report later obtained by NBC4 Washington. The officer described Norton, 88, as being in the “early stages of dementia.”

The officer’s report seemed to confirm mounting evidence of Norton’s diminishing acuity. In the last year alone, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Washingtonian documented other signs and included quotes from allies encouraging the Democrat to retire. Donna Brazile, a close friend of Norton’s who served as her first campaign manager in 1990, and then as her chief of staff for years, told the Post: “It’s time to turn things over. You’ve done it all.”

A lack of clarity about a geriatric politician’s health is, at this point, a feature of American government, with President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden being the two foremost examples. Senator Dianne Feinstein died in office in 2023 after constant reports about her inability to serve. Seven members of Congress, all Democrats, have died in office over the last two years. There was also the peculiar case of Republican Kay Granger, who spent the latter half of 2024 at a senior-living facility experiencing what her son called “dementia issues” while still technically representing her Texas district in Congress.

Norton hasn’t firmly indicated whether she’ll run again next year, and her office declined an interview request for this story. On the rare occasions she’s spoken to reporters in person, Norton suggested she’d mount a reelection campaign, only for her spokesperson to retract statements on her behalf. The mixed messaging, the fraud case, and Norton’s shrinking public profile all raise the question of whether Norton is capable of making decisions for herself. And if she isn’t, who is?

Norton’s long life traces the arc of the struggle for civil rights. “I’m a third-generation Washingtonian who grew up in a segregated Washington,” she said in 2023. “This was a city that was conscious of segregation. What it meant, where it came from — it really prepared me for the civil-rights movement because I understood it.” In 1963, she helped organize the March on........

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