‘I’m Going to Die’: Dem Congresswoman Announces Retirement After Being Diagnosed With Rare Disorder

Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton of 🏛️Virginia on Monday announced that she will not be seeking re-election after her diagnosis of a rare neurological disorder that has no cure.

Prior to the announcement that she has progressive supranuclear palsy, she sat for an interview with The Washington Post.

In the course of the interview, Wexton spoke to a friend, telling her, “It’s OK.”

Then she offered a different comment. “It’s not OK. It’s not OK at all … I’m going to die, which isn’t fair,” the 55-year-old congresswoman said.

She said that after her diagnosis this summer that ruled earlier assumptions she had Parkinson’s disease were wrong, she asked her doctor, “Can I still run for re-election?”

His reply, as Wexton recalled it, was, “Why would you want to?”

In a text to the Post, she noted that her thinking changed.

“But what became clear was that not only would I not be able to handle the rigors of campaigning in a tough district (hours of daily call time! Campaign rallies! Trackers and attack ads!) even if I could it may have literally killed me. And my life is definitely too short for that!” Wexton wrote.

During the interview, she noted