An increasingly common complaint from American voters is that too many of their elected lawmakers are too old and no longer physically or mentally capable of performing their job effectively.

One apparent example is non-voting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who was just revealed by local police to be suffering from "dementia" after she fell victim to scammers this week, according to the Daily Caller.

The elderly congresswoman, who is 88 and has represented the District of Columbia since 1991, continues to insist that she has no plans to retire anytime soon and instead intends to run for yet another two-year term in office in the next election cycle.

Lawmaker with "dementia" was scammed

D.C.'s local NBC affiliate reported that Del. Norton was scammed on Thursday when she handed over her credit card to a group of men who showed up at her house and claimed to be from an HVAC cleaning and repair service, then charged her more than $4,300 for alleged work that was never done.

Per the police report on the incident, Norton was named as the victim and was described by officers as "88 years old, Black Woman, suffers early stages of dementia."

The report also noted that the congresswoman had a "caretaker/power of attorney" who was supposed to watch out for her but was "not at the residence" at the time of the alleged crime.

Pushback from Norton's office

The D.C. affiliate reported that Del. Norton's office has pushed back against some of the information included in the police report, but notably did not outright deny the assessment of dementia for the aged lawmaker.

In a statement to the outlet, the office was insistent that Norton didn't have a "caretaker," but rather, "The Congresswoman employs a house manager who oversees all maintenance services, so she initially assumed her staff had arranged the visit and provided her credit card for payment."

That "house manager," identified separately as Norton's longtime friend and campaign treasurer Jaqueline Pelt, called the police to report the crime as soon as she noticed the fake work crew on the home's security cameras. She also reportedly called the credit card company to cancel the card and dispute the $4,362 charge.

As for the dementia claim in the police report, the statement added, "The medical diagnosis included in the police report was based on an assumption the reporting officer was unqualified to make."

However, a spokesperson for Norton refused to either confirm or deny that she'd ever received such a diagnosis, and instead was adamant that the office would make no comments about the status of the legislator's health.

Norton has no plans to retire yet

The Daily Caller noted that the physical and cognitive decline of Del. Norton has become increasingly obvious, and there are growing calls among her D.C. constituents and fellow Democrats in Congress for her to call it quits and retire.

That may eventually happen between now and next year's midterm elections, as Politico reported earlier this month that Norton's campaign fundraising thus far has been abysmal, with just a few thousand raised, while she faces serious primary challengers who've reportedly already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat her.

However, in an Axios report last month about the refusal of many elderly Democrats to make way for the younger generations to replace them, Norton was insistent that "of course" she was going to run for re-election again in 2026, and told the outlet, "I say that my seniority is what is very important, and I am not going to step aside."