Heading for the exits

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 1st of January.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up, congressional retirements:

ERNST: After a tremendous amount of prayer and reflection, I will not be seeking reelection in 2026.

DURBIN: In my heart, I know it's time to pass the torch. So, I'm announcing today that I will not be seeking re-election at the end of my term.

MCCAUL: It's been an honor to serve for over two decades uh in the Congress. Um I'm looking now for a new challenge. I'm I'm going to I'm going to serve the remainder of my term. Uh but I'm looking for a new challenge

PELOSI: I've always honored the song of St. Francis. Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, the anthem of our city. That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know, I will not be seeking reelection to Congress.

Scores of lawmakers in Washington are heading for the exits in the year ahead of the midterm elections. But why so many, and what do they have in common?

Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: A little-known corner of the House of Representatives website is titled the “Casualty List.” It contains the names of lawmakers who have died during the current legislative session along with all who are resigning and retiring. This year, the retirement announcements have reached a record length in modern politics.

BACON: Today I am announcing I'm not running for reelection. Slightfully emotional. It's been a great 10 years.

It’s standard for lawmakers to announce their retirements over the holiday season, after they’ve had time to discuss the upcoming election with their families. But this year many of the announcements started in the summer. 46 House lawmakers will be leaving Congress after this year, along with 11 Senators. All told, that’s roughly 10% of the current Congress.

The reasons for retirement span roughly three categories: running for another office, burning out of Washington, and redistricting.

GREENE: I'll be resigning from office with my last day being January 5th, 2026.

First to leave will be Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Unlike most of her departing colleagues, Greene is vacating her seat in the middle of her term. The three-term congresswoman came to Washington in 2021 promising to be a loyal foot soldier for President Donald Trump. But during his second term, the two have found themselves on opposite sides of what they think MAGA means. In an interview on 60 Minutes, Greene said her policy stances are America First, but when that contradicted the president, she was on the receiving end of harassing social media posts and death threats from voters.

GREENE: [Stahl] Did Donald Trump run you out of town? No, not at all. Actually, Leslie, it's more like this is I said in my statement, I will be no one's battered wife. And I meant it. And I won't allow the system to abuse me anymore.

Other lawmakers don’t want out of politics, just Washington. Congressman Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, is one of 12 House members running for a statewide office. In the spring, he’ll campaign in the primary against fellow Congresswoman Nancy Mace for the governorship.

NORMAN: I don't want to stay in Washington. Why not? I just don't. I'm needed in South Carolina. I'm just needed there.

But unlike other hopeful candidates, Norman says if he loses the primary, he still won’t return to Washington.

NORMAN: I'm big on term limits. I think that there is a point in time you get out. I think that my term limit bill was three terms in the House, six years, and two terms in the Senate or 12 years. And I just believe in that. I believe that people ought to young people, this is a young man's game too.

On the Democrat side, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi of California and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin both indirectly cited age as their retirement reasons, saying it is time for the younger generation to hold office. But some retiring members say their productivity as elected representatives is at an all-time low.

Over on the Senate side:

TILLIS: We've gotten less focused on an intelligent discussion about policy differences and more about fundamentally how can you be Republican or how can you be democrat or how can you be a conservative or how can you be a liberal progressive.

Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis announced in June that he would not run for reelection, after he voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Tillis has made a name for himself in the past year as a moderate Republican who disagrees with many positions from the Trump administration. At an event in October at Georgetown University, Tillis said much of the work of Congress has become a mouthpiece for the party line.

TILLIS: Almost all the people that you all know by heart have one thing in common. They produced almost nothing the entire time they've been here. I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. There is an inverse relationship between all the incendiary divisive uh rhetoric and their results.

In 2025, Congress only enacted 61 pieces of legislation, putting the current session on track to be the least productive in history in terms of bills made into law.

But Norman disagrees. He pointed out that some of the pieces of legislation were omnibus bills that included thousands of pages of text. The One Big Beautiful Bill codified several of President Trump’s executive actions. And the controversial nature of Capitol Hill is a feature, not a bug.

NORMAN: When you go swimming, you get wet. Everything that comes with this job has been a joy. It really has. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. [Carolina: Even the floor fights and the late-night votes?] Oh, yeah. I love that. It's democracy.

Another change this year is a rash of redistricting. It all started when President Trump said he wanted Texas to draw new lines to add five Republican seats to the House. That kicked off reciprocal redistricting efforts in California, and now 6 states have done the same. The process drew some members straight out of office. That includes Lloyd Doggett and Mark Veasey, both Texas Democrats. Here’s Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

KONDIK: There's been kind of a game of musical chairs. I think you might see others decide to retire. There are a few Republicans in California who haven't maybe officially announced their plans yet, but they're in districts that are gonna be hard for them to win.

And the changes are still coming.

KONDIK: There's still more shoes to drop. I mean, we're probably going to see a new map in Florida that could hurt Democrats. We could quite possibly see a new map in Virginia that hurts Republicans. And that'll probably have ripple effects too in terms of determining who's going to run again.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

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