Jim Clyburn, Third-Ranking House Democrat, Tests Positive for COVID

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn announced late Wednesday that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

“Tonight, I received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. This is a breakthrough case, and I am asymptomatic,” Clyburn said. “America is in a new phase of this pandemic. No one is immune. I urge anyone who has not done so to protect themselves by getting vaccinated and boosted.”

Clyburn was with President Joe Biden on Sunday when the president gave the commencement address at South Carolina State University, Clyburn’s alma mater. The president was also exposed to the virus after an aide in contact with him tested positive, but the White House announced Wednesday that a PCR test Biden took had come back negative.

Clyburn, 81 and the no. 3 Democrat in the House, is just the latest lawmaker to test positive. In the past week Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker and Reps. Antonio Delgado, Barbara Lee, Nicole Malliotakis, Jason Crow and Matt Cartwright said that they had tested positive, though their cases were all mild or asymptomatic, which they credited to being vaccinated.

Governors Larry Hogan of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota have also tested positive in the past week, with their results coming as the Omicron variant became the dominant strain in the United States, spiking cases across the country.