It ain’t fun anymore?
Like no time in recent memory, lawmakers are setting their sights anywhere but Capitol Hill — setting the stage for crucial midterm elections that will feature fewer incumbents than usual and ensure more fresh faces in Congress next year.
As of late February, 68 Senate and House members have said they will not seek reelection.
An unprecedented 31 of those lawmakers have filed to run for another office. In some cases, members exiting the House are hoping to enter the Senate. In others, lawmakers are seeking to return home as governor.
While looming midterms often prompt a swell of retirements, the number of announced departures at this point in the election cycle is notably higher than in other recent cycles, according to a Washington Post analysis.
“It looks like we’re heading toward a record number,” said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Some who are leaving Capitol Hill are frustrated with how little is getting done. In recent terms, Congress has passed the fewest number of bills that have become law since the early 1900s. Lawmakers largely attribute the inability to legislate to bitterly partisan politics, intraparty feuds and narrow majorities that make it difficult for leaders to compromise without backlash from influential corners of their caucuses.
Feeling stuck can also factor into decisions to depart….
Seeking to run for a higher office is not the same as “bailing.” It is called “ambition” and is pretty much the opposite of bailing. There has to be a distinction made between what the incumbents are doing.
In the post-Biden (and current Trump) era though, matters of age and health are starting to matter more to voters which is leading to more retirements. While people do live longer and healthier than ever, there are too many incumbents, in both parties, who are definitely past their prime and sticking around too long.
There are 80 year olds that are more lucid then 50 year olds…..
Trump and Biden are NOT the examples….
More than half of those quoted in the piece are NOT running for anything except piece of mind