The number of House members who have opted not to run for re-election has surged, marking the largest wave of departures in three decades.
A handful of them are Republicans from swing districts who appeared to be headed toward a loss in the November elections.
But a lot more are from safe GOP seats that would likely withstand the biggest of blue waves, and their possible reasons for leaving are an indication of what’s going wrong in Washington.
In all, 55 incumbents have announced they will not run for re-election, the second highest since 1992.
In all, 55 incumbents have announced they will not run for re-election, the highest since 1992, when a record 65 members of both parties retired after it was revealed that many of them were intentionally overdrawing their House bank accounts by thousands of dollars without paying a penalty.
In the past, a lawmaker who literally could not lose might have stuck around even when in the minority, since they could still influence bills while going through committee or as part of a negotiation with the majority. But partisan polarization has turned more legislating into party-line votes and massive omnibus bills introduced at the last minute, leaving members of the minority with little to do.
Even being in the majority has not been much fun for the current crop of Republicans, who not only have to answer questions about President Donald Trump’s constant controversies but also don’t have much to show for it. The current Congress is likely to be one of the least productive sessions in history, with fewer votes taken and laws passed than usual.
The president bears a lot of the blame. He has spent much of his second term legislating by fiat — signing executive orders, allowing the Department of Government Efficiency to run wild and directing members of his Cabinet to take actions that would have gone through Congress in the past. He regularly has said he can “do whatever I want as president.” and does not “need Congress” to take such actions as attacking Iran, imposing tariffs, withholding spending or potentially potentially withdrawing from NATO.
In October, Trump even said he already had gotten everything he needed for the rest of his term from Congress.
“We got everything done,” he said, referring to last summer’s tax cut bill. “I said, ‘Put it all into one bill and if we get it done, we’re done for four years.’ We don’t need anything more from Congress.”
Ten House Republicans are running for governor, a sign they see state government as a better place to make a mark.
No wonder then, that some ambitious GOP lawmakers are looking elsewhere. Ten House Republicans are running for governor and one for attorney general, a sign that they currently see state government as a better place to make a mark than the Capitol. By comparison, only one congressional Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell, ran for governor this cycle. (He later resigned from the House amid allegations of sexual misconduct.)
Another nine House Republicans are running for the Senate, a standard reason for leaving, while another 15 House Republicans are not running for anything. It’s likely that after a mandatory one-year cooling off period, many will sign up to lobby their former colleagues, while others will sit on corporate boards, join think tanks or become political commentators.
Those jobs pay significantly better than serving in Congress, which may be one more reason for departing. The annual salary for a rank-and-file House member is $174,000 — an amount that has not increased since 2009. Though that’s more than 2 1/2 times the median U.S. salary, a chunk of that pay gets eaten up by the cost of maintaining a place to live in their home district and in the increasingly expensive Washington area.
Still, Republicans seem to be burning out faster than Democrats. According to the Brookings Institution, the average tenure of a retiring House Republican this session is just five terms, compared to 9.9 terms for the average tenure among retiring Democrats.
For the broad majority of Americans who favor term limits, that might be seen as a good thing. But when they are leaving because Congress has become a partisan, dysfunctional and underpaid mess, it’s less than ideal.
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Ryan Teague Beckwith is a newsletter editor for MS NOW. He has previously worked for such outlets as Time magazine and Bloomberg News. He teaches journalism at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies and is the creator of Your First Byline.