Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) confirmed the death of his daughter, Gwen Casten, on Monday evening.
"Congressman Casten's cherished daughter, Gwen (17), died this morning. "We will be issuing no additional statement during this painful time because the Casten family has requested privacy," Casten tweeted. The cause of his daughter's death was unknown at the time.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the Downers Grove Police Department responded to a complaint about "an unconscious seventeen year old female" early Monday morning in the block where the Illinois Democrat lived before "first responders discovered that the individual was deceased."
Gwen recently graduated from Downers Grove North High School, where she was an honor student, Illinois State Scholar, and worked on the school newspaper, according to the Daily Herald. Gwen and her father co-wrote an opinion post in February 2021 describing how they individually reacted to the events of January 6.
Gwen's name was mentioned in a youth-led climate change march in Chicago in 2019. People need to recognize that this is a bipartisan problem, she said at the time to the Daily Herald. "It shouldn't be fought solely by one side." Gwen's death is particularly poignant for Casten's political team, as she interned for his 2020 campaign and most recently starred in an ad encouraging people to vote as they turn 18 this year.
"Not just for anyone," Gwen stated in the commercial, citing Casten's support for gun control, abortion rights, and ethics reform as examples. "I'm Sean Casten," he says. My representative in Congress. "However, I simply refer to him as Dad."
Casten mentioned Gwen in a message to supporters after voting in favor of gun safety legislation last week.
"In America, our children have taken it upon themselves to do what we here in Congress have failed to do," Casten said. "My teenage daughter, Gwen, organized a'stop-the-bleed' training to learn how to pack a gunshot wound during a school shooting because, in America, our children have taken it upon themselves to do what we here in Congress have failed to do."