Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton mentioned Monday she’s going to end her time period however won’t search re-election to the Northern Virginia-based seat she has held since defeating a Republican incumbent in 2018.
Wexton, who was identified with Parkinson’s illness earlier this yr, mentioned statement Her physician “modified my analysis to supranuclear palsy.” She described it as “a sort of stimulant Parkinson’s illness.”
The 55-year-old congresswoman added that she was “saddened to have to surrender one thing I liked after so a few years of serving my group.” However she mentioned making an allowance for her expectations for the approaching years led her to resolve “to not search re-election as soon as my time period ends.”
Wexton was a part of a brand new inflow of Democrats into Congress that helped flip management of the physique halfway by way of Donald Trump’s presidency. Earlier than being elected to Virginia’s tenth District, a district that features Washington, D.C.’s western suburbs of Leesburg and Loudoun County through Fauquier County, Wexton was a state senator, decide and prosecutor.
In 2022, she gained reelection by greater than 6%.
Wexton mentioned she didn’t make as a lot progress as she had hoped for what was then regarded as Parkinson’s illness. Her new analysis — progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) — is attributable to harm to nerve cells in areas of the mind that management considering and physique actions.
the National Institutes of Health It’s reported that most individuals with PSP develop eye issues because the situation progresses, they usually are inclined to lean backwards in addition to prolong their necks. Folks with Parkinson’s illness are inclined to lean ahead somewhat than backward.
Washington Post Weston reportedly informed her employees about her situation: “It is not okay. It is not okay in any respect… I will die, and it isn’t honest.”
After selling the publication
Wexton’s assertion mentioned she wished to spend her “treasured time” along with her household and buddies. She mentioned that till her time period in workplace ends, she is “extra assured and dedicated than ever to proceed the work that introduced me into this struggle within the first place.”
