WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Representative Alcee Hastings has died at age 84, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported on Tuesday, further narrowing the party’s majority in the lower chamber of Congress.
Representatives for Hastings, whose Florida district includes parts of Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach as well as Everglades National Park and Lake Okeechobee, could not be immediately reached to confirm the report.
Hastings has served 15 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, his website said. His death leaves a sixth vacancy in the House of Representatives, which Democrats would now control with 218 seats, against Republicans’ 211, according to a tally by the House press office.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
