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With midterm elections coming up in November, members of Congress are deciding not to run in record numbers, announcing their retirements instead.
Some say they're just done: "I've got the fire to succeed, but 10 years of this was enough," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska), who is leaving one of the most competitive House races in the nation, told my Washington Post colleagues.
Others are running for higher office, and others are likely ducking out of tough re-election races.
But the dozens of lawmakers who are retiring rather than run for re-election in November reflect a few trends about politics right now.
It could help Democrats as they try to take back control of Congress Republicans in the House are retiring in higher numbers than Democrats, suggesting some want to get out rather than face a tough re-election with an unpopular president. Republicans have one of the slimmest majorities ever, and Democrats just need to win a handful of Republican seats to take back the majority.
But just four of the 36 most competitive House and Senate races are open because of retirements.
"For the majority of these open seats, it's more about the changing of the guard as opposed to offering a lot of juicy opportunities for the Democrats," said Lou Jacobson, chief author of the 2026 Almanac of American politics who tracks congressional retirements.
Sarah Chamberlain, president of the Main Street Partnership, which supports Republican lawmakers in competitive congressional districts, said many of these retirements aren't politically driven. "Most of them just want to go on and do something else," she said, adding that it would be a hard year for Republicans regardless.
Still, some Democrats saw the surprise retirement of Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) this week as a sign that Republicans even in deeply pro-Trump states are nervous.
"People are pissed about [Trump's policies]," Jon Tester, the Democratic former senator from Montana told my Washington Post colleagues, "and you'd have to go out and face them during a campaign. I'm not sure he had the stomach for that." Montana isn't really on Democrats' radar in their uphill battle to retake the Senate. But North Carolina is, where Sen. Thom Tillis (R) isn't running for re-election.
• The retirements reflect Trump's reach into Congress
Under Trump, the balance of power between the White House and Congress has shifted dramatically. Trump is creating one of the most powerful executive branches in modern memory, aided by a Republican Congress with very little desire to challenge him.
"I have no intention of getting in the way of President Trump and his administration," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said in late January about Trump's tariffs, which the Supreme Court struck down because Trump didn't involve Congress.
In that sense, say analysts and some lawmakers, Congress isn't that fun of a place to be, especially at a time when Gallup finds 80 percent of the country disapproves of the job Congress is doing.
"Members who used to be active legislators are now active observers," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who is retiring after nearly 30 years told my Washington Post colleagues.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) is leaving to run for governor and on his way out the door seemed to blame both parties for making Congress a difficult place to work in the Trump era:
"I'm sad to say this, but I believe it's true that the Republicans in the Senate have become sort of a cult of personality for serving Donald Trump and his family and their economic and political interests," he said recently. "I believe the Democrats in the Senate in general are not coming to grips with the degree to which the Democratic Party was repudiated in the last election."
Congress is losing a lot of institutional knowledge There are no term limits in Congress. While the idea is politically popular, many political scientists say that the end result would be a rotating cast of lawmakers who have less influence than a permanent cast of un-elected lobbyists and staff.
Next year, Congress is likely to have a record number of new members.
"Just like anyone entering a new job or role," explained Molly Reynolds with The Brookings Institution in a column, "more junior members may be less effective at their jobs."
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), for example, is retiring after more than two decades as his district is being gerrymandered by Democrats. As Republicans debate how to lower health care costs, they're focused on upholding a long-standing law that bans the use of federal funds for abortions, known as the Hyde Amendment.
"They were talking about the Hyde Amendment and Darrell was like 'I was there when we voted for that,'" said Chamberlain of a recent conversation among Republican lawmakers. "So when senior members retire, you lose the knowledge and the mentoring."
Still more lawmakers could be retiring - but not by choice. Primaries are coming up, where some moderate lawmakers in both parties could be ousted by challengers.
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