death in office

{{See also|Order of succession|Casual vacancy}}

Systems differ in how they deal with the death of an office holder. In some death results in a casual vacancy, whereby the office is unfilled for a time. The office may subsequently be filled by a by-election or by appointment. A person may temporarily take the powers and responsibilities of the deceased in an "acting" capacity before a permanent replacement is made. In other systems there may be a legally defined order of succession. For example, in hereditary monarchies reigns are typically expected to end with death and the transition of power to an heir. Many presidential systems have offices of vice president, whose principal responsibility is to immediately assume the presidency if the president dies or otherwise leaves the office.

{{Main|List of heads of state and government who died in office}}

• Rizal Nurdin, governor of North Sumatra, died in a plane crash in 2005

• Aleksandr Lebed, governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, died in a helicopter crash in 2002
• Valentin Tsvetkov, governor of Magadan Oblast, killed in 2002
• Igor Farkhutdinov, governor of Sakhalin Oblast, died in a helicopter crash in 2003
• Mikhail Yevdokimov, governor of Altai Krai, died in a car accident in 2005
• Igor Yesipovsky, governor of Irkutsk Oblast, died in a helicopter crash in 2009
• Tamerlan Aguzarov, head of North Ossetia-Alania, died of pneumonia in 2016

Sir John Maybin, governor of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) (1941){{Cite news|url=http://www.martinsylvester.com/2013/02/governor-of-northern-rhodesia-5-may-1938-9-april-1941/| title = Governor of Northern Rhodesia 5 May 1938 – 9 April 1941 | author = Martin Sylvester | work= martinsylvester.com/| date = January 2013 | access-date = 2016-10-03}}

{{Main|United States Congress members who died in office}}

Upon the death of a United States senator, the Governor of the senator's home state typically appoints a successor.

Upon the death of a member of the United States House of Representatives, a special election is held to pick a successor.

The most recent member of the U.S. Congress to die in office was Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly, on May 21st, 2025, of esophageal cancer.{{Cite web |last=Chadwick |first=Lauren |date=2025-05-21 |title=Rep. Gerry Connolly, 75, has died, family statement says {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/politics/representative-connolly-dies |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=CNN |language=en}}

Other notable members who died in office include:

• Louisiana Senator Huey Long, in 1935, of a gunshot wound
• Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, in 1957, of acute hepatitis
• New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968, of assassination
• Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, in 2012, of respiratory compilations
• Arizona Senator John McCain, in 2018, of cancer
• Georgia Representative John Lewis, in 2020, of pancreatic cancer
• Alaska Representative Don Young, in 2022, of natural causes
• California Senator Dianne Feinstein, in 2023, of natural causes{{cite news|url = https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/politics/dianne-feinstein-death/index.html|title = Dianne Feinstein, longest-serving female US senator in history, dies at 90|work = CNN|last1 = Fox|first1 = Lauren|last2 = Raju|first2 = Manu|last3 = Talbot|first3 = Haley|last4 = Foran|first4 = Clare|last5 = LeBlanc|first5 = Paul|date = September 29, 2023|accessdate = September 29, 2023}}
• New Jersey Representative Donald Payne Jr., in 2024, of a heart condition{{Cite web |date=2024-04-24 |title=New Jersey congressman Donald Payne Jr. dies at 65 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/24/donald-payne-death-congress-new-jersey/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=The Washington Post|language=en}}
• Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, in 2024, of pancreatic cancer{{cite news |last1=Shen |first1=Michelle |title=Sheila Jackson Lee, long-serving Democratic congresswoman and advocate for Black Americans, dies at 74 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/19/politics/sheila-jackson-lee-texas-dies/index.html |access-date=20 July 2024 |publisher=CNN |date=20 July 2024}}
• New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell of a respiratory infection.{{cite news |last1=Schnell |first1=Mychael |date=21 August 2024 |title=New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell dead at 87 |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/4839250-bill-pascrell-new-jersey-democrat-dies/ |access-date=20 July 2024 |publisher=CNN}}

{{Main| List of presidents of the United States who died in office}}

In addition, 8 U.S. presidents died in office, four of whom were assassinated.

• William Henry Harrison, in 1841 of pneumonia; Harrison died 31 days into his presidency at the White House, the official home of the president, making him the president with the shortest tenure. His pneumonia supposedly escalated from a common cold, acquired after Harrison did his inaugural address, the longest in American history, in the rain without a jacket.
• Zachary Taylor, in 1850, of gastroenteritis; Taylor contracted the illness after consuming cherries at a party. Some suspect he was poisoned. He also died in the White House.
• Abraham Lincoln, in 1865 of gunshot wounds, while watching a play in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., he was shot by John Wilkes Booth and died the next day.
• James A. Garfield, in 1881, of septic shock caused by an infection acquired during treatment for gunshot wounds, after being shot by Charles Guiteau. He died in Elberon, New Jersey after being shot in the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. 79 days earlier.
• William McKinley, in 1901, of gangrene caused by gunshot wounds; he was shot by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York. McKinley's death famously resulted in Theodore Roosevelt's rise to the presidency. Roosevelt's leadership is considered one of the most impactful in American history, and would overshadow McKinley's legacy.
• Warren G. Harding, in 1923, of heart attack. The popular Harding's sudden death shocked the country; however, his legacy would be overshadowed by the Teapot Dome Scandal and revelations of his extramarital affair with Nan Britton. He was on a western journey and died in San Francisco, California.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage; Roosevelt had been elected to a historic fourth term towards the end of the previous year, however his health had been in decline. He died in his vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia. His long tenure is one of the main reasons for the passing of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which both introduced a term limit for presidents and put a long-standing tradition in writing.
• John F. Kennedy, in 1963, of gunshot wounds; while in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, he was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald and died later that same day.

A well-known legend is the Curse of Tippecanoe in which Harrison, elected in 1840, was allegedly cursed by a Native American chief during the Battle of Tippecanoe, so that he and future presidents elected in the years ending in a zero would die in office. The curse also affected Lincoln (1860), Garfield (1880), McKinley (1900), Harding (1920), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1940), and Kennedy (1960). Ronald Reagan (1980) survived an assassination attempt in 1981. George W. Bush (2000) and Joe Biden (2020) also survived the curse. The incumbent president is currently Donald Trump, who cannot be part of the curse having been elected in 2024.

The curse does not apply to Taylor as he was elected in 1848.

{{Main| List of United States governors who died in office}}

Many mayors (e.g., George Moscone, Harold Washington, Ed Lee) and state governors (e.g., Lurleen Wallace, Lawton Chiles, Frank O'Bannon) have died in office. Similar to the President being succeeded by the Vice President, in most states, the Governor is succeeded by the Lieutenant Governor. Unlike the President, however, mayors are usually succeeded by the president of the city's legislative branch, as acting mayor, upon the mayor's death.

{{Reflist}}

Category:Public administration

Category:Legal aspects of death