Longtime Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) died Wednesday morning, his family announced after more than a month of numerous hospital stays.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that Bill Pascrell Jr., our beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away this morning,” Pascrell’s family said in a post on the congressman’s X-account. “As our United States Representative, Bill fought until his final breath to return to the job he loved and the people he loved. Bill lived in Paterson his entire life and had an unwavering love for the city he grew up in and served. He now rests in peace after dedicating his life to our great nation of America.”

Pascrell’s death came a week after he returned to the hospital, although he had been released just days earlier from a nearly four-week stay. The 87-year-old Democrat, who was the second-oldest member of the House, had self-admitted to the hospital on July 14 because of a fever and was diagnosed with a respiratory infection.

The congressman suffered a “setback” in July that required “breathing support,” but Pascrell’s staff had New Jersey Monitor that the doctors expected a full recovery.

Known as a strong liberal supporter and critic of Republicans such as former President Donald Trump, Pascrell was first elected to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1987, became mayor of Paterson in 1990, and made it to the House of Representatives in 1997 after defeating an incoming Republican representative in the 1996 election.

The congressman was one of the founding members of the House Homeland Security Committee when it was created in June 2022 and later served as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness. He was a longtime member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and one of 81 Democrats who voted for the United States invasion of Iraq in 2002.

At 87, he would be the oldest member of the House of Representatives, as Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) retires after this year. Pascrell had planned to run again this year and defeat his challenger in the primary, who criticized the congressman for ignoring the views of Arab-American voters because of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Pascrell was scheduled to face Republican challenger Billy Prempeh in the November election, whom Pascrell has already defeated twice – in 2022, 55% to 44%, and in 2020, when the district was leaning blue, 66% to 32%. Amid speculation that Pascrell might drop out of the race, precincts in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District had until August 29 to choose a new candidate.

The congressman’s health problems continued beyond that month; he was already briefly hospitalized once in 2020 after visiting the hospital for nausea and heartburn, which required heart bypass surgery due to a blockage in his arteries.

Pascrell leaves behind his wife Elsie, with whom he was married for 61 years, as well as three sons and five grandchildren.

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The New Jersey Democrat is the latest House member to die this legislative session. Longtime Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) died on July 19, just a month after announcing she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Pascrell’s fellow New Jerseyan, Democratic Rep. Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey, died in late April after suffering a “heart attack” on April 6 that left him on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.