But Kind, who announced his retirement in July, has found his way to win in his rural, western Wisconsin district since he was first elected 26 years ago. It's a seat he won by 2 points in 2020.įormer President Trump won Kind's district by 4.7 points in 2020 and, like Murphy, he was high on the target list for House Republicans. Ron Kind's Wisconsin seat was unlikely to change much in this round of redistricting. Roybal-Allard and Lowenthal both announced their retirements right before a final Congressional map revealed that parts of their two Los Angeles-area seats would be combined, setting up a matchup between two Democratic incumbents. Butterfield saw his Democratic leaning seat become a toss-up district. While some retiring Democrats like Cheri Bustos of Illinois or Peter DeFazio of Oregon in fact saw their districts grow more Democratic during redistricting, most of the retiring lawmakers in states that had finished drawing their lines felt they were put in awkward or politically tougher situations. So the question is how ugly do they draw this map? "Republicans will get what they want, there's no question. "It's a surprise for us and disappointing because she's been a great advocate for us here in Florida, as well as all of her work on the January 6 committee," Wes Hodge, the Orlando Democratic Party chair, said of Murphy's retirement. Six of the 23 members retiring were drawn into districts that either incorporated more Republican voters, worsening their political fortunes, or were pitted against another Democratic incumbent in the same district because their state lost a Congressional seat in the reapportionment dictated by the 2020 Census. While she won her 2020 reelection by more than 12 points and said she didn't fear losing her reelection, she was targeted immediately by House Republican groups this cycle– in part because Republicans control the redrawing of her Orlando suburban district. Stephanie Murphy, a House Democrat who announced her retirement this week, is only 43 years old and has spent five years in Congress. I think you're providing yourself more opportunity to realize that at some point it's just probably better to go out," said Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Mark Gonzalez. "If you're going to retire now, or you're going to get out of the game, I think you're going out on top. Eleven of the 23 retiring members are over the age of 70 years old, and eleven of them have served in Congress at least 15 years. California's Grace Napolitano, Georgia's Sanford Bishop, Tennessee's Steve Cohen and New Jersey's Tom Malinowski are all being monitored for potential retirement.Īge and time spent in Congress may also be a consideration. They point to redistricting and a new peak in political polarization in Congress, which culminated in the attacks on the Capitol on January 6, as other reasons for the high rate of retirements, which is expected to grow further as more states finish their redistricting process. "But you don't go through hard elections and all the fundraising and the time away from your family and just throw up your hands and say, 'It's going to be a bad election.' It's a combination of a variety of things."ĭemocrats are counting other factors going into 2022. "If you're a Democrat, one of the elements you're thinking about, is that it may be a bad year," said former Tennessee House Democrat Bart Gordon, who retired in 2010. In 2018, Democrats won the chamber from Republicans, who had more than 40 open seats going into the election, compared to 22 for Democrats.
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