John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who was the country’s longest-serving congressman and also the longtime Dean of the House, has died. He was 92.

News broke Wednesday that the longtime congressman had entered hospice care. Hours later, Dingell, a skillful tweeter, posted on the platform, thanking supporters for their prayers.

“The Lovely Deborah is insisting I rest and stay off here, but after long negotiations we’ve worked out a deal where she’ll keep up with Twitter for me as I dictate the messages,” Dingell said, referring to his wife, Rep. Debbie Dingell. “I want to thank you all for your incredibly kind words and prayers. You’re not done with me just yet.”

In a statement on Thursday, Debbie Dingell’s office announced that the revered congressman had died.

“Congressman Dingell died peacefully today at his home in Dearborn, surrounded by his wife Deborah,” the statement said. “He was a lion of the United States Congress and a loving son, father, husband, grandfather, and friend.

“He will be remembered for his decades of public service to the people of Southeast Michigan, his razor sharp wit, and a lifetime dedication to improving the lives of all those who walk this earth.”

Dingell represented Michigan for nearly 60 years, last serving as the representative for the 12th district before announcing in 2014 that he would not be seeking a 30th term. His wife succeeded his position to represent Michigan’s 12th Congressional District. Dingell’s tenure in the House spanned 11 presidencies, starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower and ending with Barack Obama.

He was a longtime supporter of universal health care, a cause he adopted from his late father, whom he replaced in Congress in 1955. He also was known as a dogged pursuer of government waste and fraud, and even helped take down two top presidential aides while leading the investigative arm of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he chaired for 14 years.

Dingell had a front-row seat for the passage of landmark legislation he supported, including Medicare, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, but also for the Clean Air Act, which he was accused of stalling to help auto interests. His hometown, the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, was home to a Ford Motor Co. factory that was once the largest in the world.

More recently, Dingell was known for his biting tweets, which often took aim at another political tweeter: President Donald Trump.

Dingell also recently released an autobiography, “The Dean, the Best Seat in the House.”

In a statement, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the state said goodbye to “one of our greatest leaders.”

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“John Dingell will forever be remembered as ‘The Dean’ of Congress not simply for the length of his service, but for his unparalleled record of legislative accomplishments,” Whitmer said.

Tributes poured in for Dingell as the news of his death was reported.

“Chairman Dingell had a hand in crafting many major legislative accomplishments over the past half-century,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a statement. “Yet, among the vast array of historic legislative achievements, few hold greater meaning than his tireless commitment to the health of the American people.

“During every Congress since 1955, Chairman Dingell introduced legislation to secure affordable, quality health care for all Americans. Because of his father’s legacy and his own leadership, in 1965, he gaveled Medicare into law. In 2010, it was my privilege to hold that same gavel as we passed the Affordable Care Act.”

As noted in The Nation in 2014, when Dingell was asked whether he had read the text of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, he replied “Read it? I wrote it.”

When the GOP-controlled House was taking up its own health care legislation in March 2017, which would have repealed parts of the ACA, Dingell posted a series of tweets explaining the different health care laws that had been taken up in Congress.

“Who knew health care could be so complicated?” Dingell’s opening tweet said.

Dingell wrote that his father first introduced a bill that would have created a single-payer health care system in 1943. Though the bill failed in committee and his father died in 1955, Dingell introduced his father’s bill every year he served in Congress, starting in 1957.

“John Dingell’s life reminds us that change doesn’t always come with a flash, but instead with steady, determined effort,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement. “Over the course of the longest congressional career in history, John led the charge on so much of the progress we take for granted today.”

Dingell was born in 1926 in Colorado Springs. According to a bio on the House Historian’s website, Dingell attended Georgetown University as an undergraduate and later went on to get his law degree from Georgetown. He served in the United States Army from 1944-46 and was later a lawyer in private practice. He was elected to Congress in 1955 by special election to fill the seat left vacant after the death of his father.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this story.

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(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)