Longtime Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern said Thursday his daughter Molly McGovern, “the soul of our family,” died unexpectedly while visiting a friend in Italy.
The 23-year-old, who had been battling a rare form of cancer, had just completed a semester abroad in Australia, her father said in a statement.
“Molly radiated pure joy,” McGovern wrote in a tribute on X from the family — wife Lisa McGovern and son Patrick McGovern.
“She lit up every room with her beaming smile — full of laughter, endless warmth, and a sharp wit that could disarm you in an instant,” he said. “Even as she faced a rare cancer diagnosis, she did so with relentless courage, optimism, and tenacity — refusing to let her illness slow her down.”
Tributes and sympathy streamed in from fellow politicians, some of whom had lost children themselves.
“The world is a poorer place today than it was yesterday as we wake up to the hard reality of life without Molly McGovern, the beautiful and irrepressibly spirited daughter of our beloved friends Jim and Lisa McGovern,” stated U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, whose son, Tommy, died in 2020 at age 25. “Everyone in our family adored Molly and we were all inspired by her love for animals, her passion for sports and her ebullient compassion and care for friends, family and strangers. We embrace the McGoverns and hold them tight during this hard, hard time.”
Molly McGovern had volunteered for Raskin in the past and was studying political science and government at Northeastern University in Boston, according to People. She was known on both sides of the aisle via her father, who has served the 2nd Congressional since 1997.
“Molly was a light in her family’s lives and the lives of so many,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “We are all feeling the sadness of her being taken too soon.”
Jim McGovern is the ranking member and top Democrat on the House Committee on Rules and was among a group of Congress members who visited the Louisiana ICE detention center holding Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, to push for the PhD candidate’s release, CBS News has reported.
“The loss of a child, no matter the age, is one of the greatest heartbreaks imaginable,” Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, a Republican representing North Carolina’s 5th District, said in a statement. “Ranking Member McGovern and his entire family remain in my thoughts and prayers. In this difficult time of loss, may they find continued comfort, peace, and strength from their faith and from those around them.”
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