Barney Frank, Massachusetts congressman for 32 years, dies at 86

Local News Barney Frank, Massachusetts congressman for 32 years, dies at 86 By Jon Keller Jon Keller Jon Keller is the political analyst for WBZ-TV News. His "Keller @ Large" reports on a wide range of topics are regularly featured during WBZ News at 5 and 6 p.m. Read Full Bio Jon Keller Updated on: May 20, 2026 / 10:06 AM EDT / CBS Boston Add CBS News on Google Barney Frank, an outspoken Democrat who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 32 years, has died, the Associated Press reported, citing his former campaign manager and close friend. He was 86 years old.Frank had been in hospice care for congestive heart failure at his home in Ogunquit, Maine."People should leave their legacies to other people to describe," Frank once said.For those outside his inner circle of family and friends, the public legacy of the late congressman from Newton may be best described by the people he served from 1981 to 2013. Rep. Barney Frank at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. Jay Mallin / Bloomberg via Getty Images They are the ones who rallied behind Frank when he sought re-election in 1988 after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality, a rarity back then. His constituents affirmed their support in 1990 after a scandal involving his association with a male prostitute, which a House Ethics Committee investigation found included Frank fixing parking tickets and making misleading statements to prosecutors in criminal cases involving the prostitute. It wasn't just liberals from Newton and Brookline who backed Frank. In 1988, Frank swept every city and town in the Fourth Congressional District except for resolutely-Republican Dover. In the 1990 race, he ran up huge margins in the more-conservative southern end of his district, winning Fall River by nearly a 4-to-1 margin. In a WBZ-TV poll at the time, 65% said Frank should not resign as the Boston Globe and other prominent voices were urging; another 60% sa...