With a heavy heart, I have to tell you that after a long battle with cancer my husband Kevin Drum passed away on Friday, March 7, 2025.
No public memorial services are planned.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to the charity or political cause of your choice.
A Facebook page, 'In Memory of Kevin Drum', has been created as a place for friends and family to share memories of Kevin. I encourage you to post your thoughts and memories there.
Thank you to all the wonderful blog readers who supported, encouraged and challenged him through the years.
He will be greatly missed.
Marian
My deepest condolences. This was my favorite blog, and it was great to read someone who actually sanity checked what is out there in the media.
I hoped that he'd keep dodging the bullet, he'd been sick so long. Alas, not.
Weeping.
Never met him. Followed him 20 7 years. Loved him.
That's exactly how I feel too. 🥺🥺
Just saw this and thought I’d share:
https://bsky.app/profile/clarajeffery.bsky.social/post/3lk2bg4a43s2q
‘Though he worked remotely and never met a lot of the staff, Kevin always refused to take a raise, asking that we spend the money on junior staffers. Something he didn't want made public then, but an important thing to share.“
Well maybe Kevin was at least putting his money where his mouth was in his stance that remote workers are less productive.
My sincere condolences to the Drum family. I will miss reading him daily, and following Hilbert and Charlie's antics. Kevin made the world a better place.
My deepest condolences, Marian.
My heart goes out to you, Marian.
Like so many others here, I've been a daily reader of Kevin's since the Calpundit days, over 20 years ago. He was truly a brilliant guy, and was a kind of daily therapy that helped me process the many crazy ups and downs of our politics. His love of cats, astronomy, economics, physics, and so much more was icing on the cake.
He will truly be missed.
My deepest condolences. This is devastating news. I’ve been one of Kevin’s readers for nearly 10 years. He will be sorely missed.
So sorry to hear this. One of my favorite blogs. Kevin was always a voice of reason.
To me, he was living the dream, doing something he loved and being successful at it on his own terms. I’ve been a fan since Calpundit days and read him nearly everyday. I’ve been in dread the past few days and am very saddened to see our worst fears confirmed. My deepest condolences to Marian and everyone in Kevin’s life.
I’m so sorry this has happened. Goddam he’ll be missed. I’ve checked this blog and read his stuff multiple times per day for 10 years.
May each of usdisplay the same intellectual rigor and curiosity. The same interests in seeing the Truth. The same self-effacing humility. The same honesty. The same intellectual integrity and willingness to reconsider our opinions.
May his Light shine forever!
It isn't given to many people to have done so much for so long to advance the public discourse. We are the better for his insights, and the lesser for his loss.
I am so sorry to hear this. For many years, I've appreciated his thoughtful, original takes on events, his facility with facts and data, and his political insights. It was always a tonic to open up his site after reading the news. I also greatly admired his courage (even though he would disclaim it) fighting cancer. He was inspiring and had no equal. I wish Marian and his family and friends all the best.
Martin Goyette
Requiem im Pacem. Good bye KD. Goodnight jabberwocking.
Marian,
Thank you for posting the painful news. Kevin was a light -- shining on poorly written articles, bad graphs, inaccurate analysis, all of it. The photos were often so beautiful, and I've saved a few.
I found him through Mother Jones, when I happened to notice the Friday cat blogging, and I stayed for the charts and graphs. Along the way he also taught us courage, and a writer's need for writing.
This is such a sad day. Take care of yourself, and know that all of us here loved him and you and the cats. We're so sorry for your loss.
Wikipedia calls Kevin Drum a journalist. There's nothing wrong with being a journalist, but Kevin was so much more. His thinking on so many subjects was so solid, and so clearly expressed, that he leaves big hole in my life. Having read his blogging daily, ever since the Washington Monthly days, I share the jabberwocking community's sense of loss.
And for Marian i offer thanks for sharing Kevin with us. I wish her the fortitude that will get her through the sad days ahead.
I've been reading Kevin since around 2003 and he was a mainstay of my online life. I relied on him to be the sanest voice in the room, and he always was. I admired his mordant and dry sense of humor and his ability to not let events get the better of him. Simply put, he was an adult and I appreciated that about him. His body of work as a blogger is simply staggering.
My spouse and I send you our very deepest sympathies. I’m so grateful for all that Kevin shared, including the little windows into his own life.
Marian,
I am so very sorry about Kevin's passing and I hope you are doing as okay as one can under the circumstances.
I'd followed Kevin's blogs since his CalPundit days as well. I trusted his judgment and I appreciated the sense he made of all things related to the economy because I couldn't figure it out.
Thank you for sharing him with us.
I’m so sad he’s gone. Rest in peace Kevin.
I’m so sorry for you loss..Marian. Thank you kindly for letting us know that Kevin has died. He will indeed be greatly missed. It’s hard to describe how truly sad I am.
I am so sorry, Marian. I will miss Kevin so much - I live in Laguna Niguel and spend lots of time in the Irvine area. I know our paths probably crossed more than once, and I always hoped I would run in to him somewhere.
I will miss him greatly, and send my deepest condolences.
My thoughts are with you, Marian. Kevin has been a presence in my life for many years now, since Calpundit days.
Take care of the cats.
Such sad news. Sending best wishes to your family.
Kevin will be missed, condolences to you and your family.
Ah Marian my heart breaks for you. The Kevin-shaped hole in my life is nothing compared to the one in yours. He was a great man, who did great things, and made my own thinking much smarter. I will miss him.
I'm feeling blue. I feel like I lost a friend. I have read Kevin for over 20 years. pretty much daily. I am so sorry, Marian. peace to you.
randomworker
This is such terrible news. Kevin was a guy I've been reading since the 2000s. I always trusted his judgment and admired how even-keeled he was.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Dear Marian,
I'm just another person out here on the internet who has been reading your husband for a quarter of a century—most of my life (!)—and came to love his writing.
He added so much to the world with his blogging. I learned a ton from him. I think what came through so unusually well in his use of this blogging medium, from the Calpundit days onward, was his particular slightly cranky attitude about facts and how to frame them. Platitudes that are untrue, facts that aren't really facts but are just accepted as facts, lots of conventional wisdom about so many topics—all of this he had a wonderful way of puncturing, shining a little light on how we might find out what's actually true. Even when I disagreed with Kevin I admired and appreciated the evident joy that he took in successfully skewering something that a lot of people might be saying but that isn't true. The combination of the joy and the crankiness is probably what made me relate to him so much.
I will miss him. I am going to keep this bookmark up as a memorial; no one will fill precisely this hole in the fabric of the internet, from my vantage point.
I don't have much else to say except that I hope you know how many people Kevin touched with his work—there are a ton of us, all around the world.
With sympathy,
JRF
I only came across Kevin's blog a few years ago, but JRF says it all. I'm so sorry.
Been reading for 20 years and never commented and I am very sorry for the loss of your husband. I read him for 20 years every day and valued everything he ever wrote. His voice was intelligent and important and I will miss him. The world is a smaller place.
I am so very sorry for your loss, a loss that many of us feel while knowing these feelings of grief are dwarfed by yours.
Dear Marian
Kevin was an inspiration to me for over 20 years. I stumbled upon his blog at the Washington Monthly, and followed him ever since.
He was always a voice of reason and sanity in an increasingly crazy world.
Please post here if there is anything any of us can do. I understand Americans sometimes die with undischarged medical bills, and that's certainly something we could help with.
Our grief cannot be what your grief is. But let me extend the condolences that I can.
Sincerely
John (in England)