Delayed retirement from Congress to help pass Obama agenda
Longtime U.S. Rep. William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts, a Democratic stalwart who postponed his own retirement from Washington to help pass former President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda, has died after a long-term illness, his family announced.
Mr. Delahunt died March 30 at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, at the age of 82, news reports said.
Mr. Delahunt served 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1997 to 2011, for Massachusetts’s 10th congressional district.
The Delahunt family issued a statement saying he passed away “peacefully” but did not disclose his cause of death, news reports said.
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela posted a statement on X mourning Mr. Delahunt’s passing. As a member of Congress, Mr. Delahunt brokered a 2005 deal with then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to obtain heating oil for low-income Massachusetts residents, according to news reports. Mr. Delahunt also attended Chavez’s state funeral in Caracas in March 2013.
Mr. Delahunt stepped down from the U.S. House in January 2011. He told The Boston Globe he had previously considered retirement, but Sen. Edward M. Kennedy convinced him he was needed to help pass Obama’s legislative initiatives at the time. Mr. Delahunt was an early Obama backer.