Kay Granger, trailblazing Texas congresswoman, dead at 83

Aidan Quigley, CQ-Roll Call on Aug 3, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Former House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, the first Republican woman to lead the powerful spending committee, has died at the age of 83.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced her death in a Sunday night post on X, calling her a “dear friend who will be greatly missed.”

“Throughout her career, she broke barriers for women in public service,” Johnson wrote.

Granger was the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee from 2018 to 2024, serving as the chairwoman after Republicans won control of the House during the 2022 midterms until she stepped down in 2024. She was absent from Congress for much of that final year, when her family reported she was suffering from dementia.

Granger, first elected to Congress in 1996, was the mayor of Fort Worth from 1991 to 1995 before heading to Washington. She was the first Republican congresswoman from Texas, and was a major voice in favor of additional defense spending and other conservative priorities.

“Kay boasts a remarkable list of ‘firsts,’” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a senior appropriator, said when Granger announced she would not run for reelection in November 2023. “She stands as one of the most formidable, principled, and influential members of Congress.”

Before becoming the full-committee chairwoman, Granger was the top Republican on both the Defense and State-Foreign Operations subcommittees.

“At every step of her career, she earned the respect of Members on both sides of the aisle through her steady leadership and deep belief in the importance of Congress fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to invest in the American people,” House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said in a statement Sunday.

During her career in Congress, Granger was a longtime proponent of the F-35 fighter jet program, which Lockheed Martin Corp. assembles in her former district.

She led the Appropriations panel during a rocky time for House Republicans, who faced a slim majority and a historic overthrow of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in the fall of 2023.

Granger emerged as a key player during the conference’s efforts to find a new leader after McCarthy’s ouster. She and a handful of other longtime appropriators did not support House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on the House floor, leading to the demise of his bid.

It took until months later in March for Congress to wrap up the fiscal 2024 spending bills, at which point she stepped down as chairwoman.

At the time, Granger said she wanted to hand over power to a new leader before fiscal 2025 bill development began, as final appropriations bills during election years are often not done until well into the next fiscal year. Current Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., ran unopposed to take over for Granger.

Climbing the ladder

Granger was born in Greenville, a Dallas suburb, to two public school teachers. She became a teacher after earning her bachelor’s degree at Texas Wesleyan University, and taught literature and journalism for a decade before going into the insurance business in the late 1970s.

She started her political career in 1981, when she was appointed to the Fort Worth Zoning Commission. She rose to the City Council in 1989, and became mayor of one of the largest cities in Texas just two years later.

She resigned as mayor to run for Congress following Democratic Rep. Pete Geren’s decision to not seek reelection in 1996. She defeated another former Fort Worth mayor, Hugh Parmer, by nearly 17 percentage points in her first election.

Her congressional career featured a long climb to power in the Appropriations Committee, winning a heated five-way contest in 2018 to become the full-committee ranking member. She succeeded Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey as the top Republican on the committee and defeated Cole, Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., and former Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., to win the role.

When then-Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, rose to those positions in 2023, Granger became part of the first group of four women to lead the appropriations panels, with DeLauro.

DeLauro said that Granger had lived an “extraordinary life of public service.”

“Congresswoman Granger devoted her life to serving the people of Texas and our nation with integrity, determination, and a profound sense of duty,” DeLauro said.