President Donald Trump (left); Rep. Sylvester Turner (right). Photo:
Win McNamee/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty; Paul Marotta/Getty
U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner shared one last message for President Donald Trump before his sudden death on Wednesday, March 5.
“My message to the current administration for tonight’s State of the Union: ‘Don’t mess with Medicaid,’ ” Turner tweeted shortly before he died on Wednesday. Turner, who served as the mayor of Houston from 2016 until January 2024 and was elected to represent Texas’ 18th Congressional district in November, was 70.
In a video that accompanied his post on X, Turner stood beside Angela Hernandez, whom he introduced as his guest to Trump’s Tuesday night speech before a joint session of Congress.
“She is representing and advocating for her daughter Baislee Garcia who has a rare genetic disorder Chromosome 8p: Inversion/Duplication/Deletion,” he wrote of Hernandez, highlighting the need for affordable access to healthcare.
“Any cuts to Medicaid are a direct attack on families like Angela’s. President Trump and Elon Musk’s push to gut Medicaid is nothing short of a betrayal of the most vulnerable among us,” Turner wrote. “They are playing politics with children’s lives, and I will not stand for it.”
The clip showed Hernandez speaking about her 2-year-old daughter, saying, “Losing Medicaid would be devastating to us.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Turner was transported to a hospital on Tuesday night, March 4, after attending Trump’s address to Congress, reports KHOU. Turner was released and later died at his home in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning.
Sylvester Turner in July 2023. Arturo Holmes/Getty
“This comes as a shock to everyone,” Whitmire said as he asked the community for prayers.
“A remarkable public servant who impacted millions of people,” Whitmire said of Turner during Wednesday’s City Council meeting, per KHOU. “He rose from poverty but never forgot where he came from. It is a terrible loss for the city and a personal loss for me. I ask Houstonians to celebrate his life.”
During Trump’s speech, another Texas Congressman, Rep. Al Green, was escorted out after he protested against the president’s plan for healthcare.
“I was making it clear to the President that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” he later said. “I have people who are very fearful. These are poor people. And they have only Medicaid in their lives when it comes to their health care,” Green, 77, told reporters after his removal, per C-SPAN.
President Donald Trump on March 4. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty
“I want him to know that his budget calls for deep cuts in Medicaid. He needs to save Medicaid and protect it. We need to raise the cap on Social Security,” he added.
Additionally, Green told reporters he was “willing to suffer whatever punishment is available,” referring to his removal during the speech.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
While addressing Congress, Trump claimed he had the greatest start of a presidency of all time.
“It has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency … is the most successful in the history of our nation,” Trump said without citing any source. “And what makes it even more impressive is that, do you know who number two is George Washington? How about that? I don’t know about that list, but we’ll take it.”
