Former US Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington dies at 89

David Lerman, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 13, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a fierce advocate for universal healthcare and outspoken war critic who served 28 years in Congress, died Thursday at the age of 89, his family announced.

In a roughly 50-year career in state and federal office, the salty-tongued, liberal lawmaker from Seattle won praise and criticism for pushing an aggressive agenda focused on expanding healthcare to all Americans.

As the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, McDermott defended the 2010 Affordable Care Act that expanded health insurance to millions of Americans, while critics complained it did little to control costs.

“Jim was one of the first and most powerful voices fighting to fix our broken health care system in Congress,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote on X. “He was passionate and fearless — and left a tremendous legacy on WA state and its people. My thoughts are with Congressman McDermott’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

When McDermott announced his retirement from Congress in 2016, then-President Barack Obama praised him in a statement as “a much-needed voice for his most vulnerable constituents.”

Born and raised in Illinois, McDermott came from a poor, conservative and deeply religious family. His father, a bond underwriter, and his mother, a telephone operator and homemaker, started a church in the garage of their two-bedroom home. His three siblings slept in one bedroom; his parents in the other. McDermott, the oldest child, had the couch.

He attended the conservative evangelical Wheaton College. His bend toward liberalism began during medical school at the University of Illinois, when he voted for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. After a stint in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps from 1968-1970, McDermott won his first seat in the Washington state House in 1970 running on an anti-war platform.

He continued his anti-war stances in Congress, voting against the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq. In 2013, he opposed U.S. intervention in Syria and was one of only 20 House members to vote against new sanctions on Iran.

Shortly after he retired from Congress, McDermott settled on a new life for himself by moving to a small town in southwestern France, where he admired some of the public policies he had fought hard to deliver in Washington with mixed success.

“I spent 16 years in the Washington state legislature trying to get single-payer healthcare,” he recalled in a 2024 interview with CQ Roll Call at his home about 90 minutes outside of Bourdeaux. “Then I spent nearly 30 years in Congress trying to get single-payer. Then I came to France and in three months I had single-payer. Was that mind-blowing? You bet.”

As he said, McDermott dedicated much time in the Washington state legislature to trying to create a single-payer system. When that didn’t work out, he developed the Washington State Basic Health Program, a health coverage system for the unemployed and working poor — the first state program of its kind.

Then, once he got to Washington, he tried to work with then-first lady Hillary Clinton to hatch a federal single-payer program, but that effort came to naught. He later backed the Affordable Care Act and tried to pass his own legislation in 2015 for comprehensive health care coverage.

“The only way to truly ensure that access to quality health care is a right enjoyed by every American is through a single-payer system,” he said in a statement at the time.

McDermott will also be remembered for some of the attacks he leveled against Republicans. In the most notorious incident, he was ordered to pay then-Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio — who later became speaker — nearly $1.1 million in 2008 after releasing a recording of a 1996 cellphone call between Boehner and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich. McDermott maintained it was worth the fight, and the cost of the settlement, to protect free speech.

“Jim McDermott was as big as it gets in Washington state politics,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wrote on Facebook. “Smart, funny, and Irish, Jim McDermott will be missed.”