I can't think of a single Republican member of Congress I would be sorry to see retire. There are a few who may have a good trait or two but none have enough going for them to make them worthwhile. The only problem with them retiring, is that they will be replaced by even worse outright Know Nothings and fascists. As of now there are an even dozen Republicans retiring from the House next year, only one (Kevin Brady of Texas) because of old age. Tom Reed is retiring due to scandal and Anthony Gonzalez (OH) and Adam Kinzinger (IL) were forced out by Trump, although, to be fair, Kinzinger's seat was gerrymandered out of existence. These are the other Republicans leaving the House:
Mo Brooks (AL)- running for Senate
Vicky Hartzler (MO)- long shot bid for Senate
Billy Long (MO)- long shot bid for Senate
Ted Budd (NC)- long shot bid for Senate
Lee Zeldin (NY)- long shot bid for governor
Louie Gohmert (TX)- long shot bid for attorney general
Jody Hice (GA)- running for secretary of state
Devin Nunes (CA)- his district turned too blue for a Republican
The House will automatically be a better place without them, especially Brady, Brooks, Budd, Gohmert, Hice, Nunes and Zeldin. And if you disagree about Kinzinger because he is so vehemently anti-Trump, I get it, but, look at his voting record. He's anti-Choice, anti-LGBTQ, pro-Austerity, pro-corporate, anti-voting rights, anti-public health, pro-gun, anti-environment and an opponent of doing anything to ameliorate Climate Change. Yeah, anti-Trump but...
Now, for every Republican retiring this cycle, two Democrats are leaving. So far-- after Brenda Lawrence's announcement last night-- 25 Democrats are retiring. Just over half of them (13) are retiring because they are old and it's pretty much time-- or even past time:
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)- 71 (also alcoholic) F
Jackie Speier (CA)- 71 B
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA)- 80 (also redistricted) A
Alan Lowenthal (CA)- 80 (also redistricted) A
Bobby Rush (IL)- 75 B
John Yamuth (KY)- 74 B
Brenda Lawrence (MI)- 67 (also redistricted) B
G.K. Butterfield (NC)- 74 (also redistricted) D
David Price (NC)- 81 D
Albio Sires (NJ)- 70 D
Pete DeFazio (OR)- 74 B
Mike Doyle (PA)- 68 F
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)- 86 C
The bolded letter after their age is their ProgressivePunch score. You can judge for yourself if the country is better off without them. I will say that Mike Doyle is likely to be replaced by super-progressive Summer Lee and that G.K. Butterfield is likely to be replaced by super-progressive Erica Smith. (You can contribute to both Lee and Smith here.)
I don't know why Cheri Bustos (60), Stephanie Murphy (43) and Ron Kind (58) are retiring. All 3 have tough districts that take a lot of energy to win in. Trump won all 3 districts. Bustos is very ambitious and saw herself as a future Speaker but failed miserably as DCCC chair. The 3 of them are corporate conservatives whose right-of-center views are out of sync with the Democratic Party. My guess is that they are just fed up fighting 2-front wars-- with their own party and with Republicans. Congress is better off without the 3 of them. Filemon Vela (58) fits in with this crew of conservatives but I do know why he's retiring. He wants to cash out and get rich as a lobbyist. Good riddance.
8 are running for higher office:
Karen Bass (CA)- running for mayor of Los Angeles A
Val Demings (FL)- long shot bid for Senate C
Charlie Crist (FL)- long shot bid for governor D
Anthony Brown (MD)- running for attorney general C
Tom Suozzi (NY)- long shot bid for governor F
Tim Ryan (OH)- long shot bid for Senate C
Conor Lamb (PA)- long shot bid for Senate D
Peter Welch (VT)- running for Senate B
The chances are good that there will be upgrades in the districts represented by Bass (Daniel Lee), Demings, Suozzi (Melanie D'Arrigo) and Lamb (Deluzio) and you can contribute to their campaigns here.
So far 6 senators have announced they're retiring, two-- Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT)-- from states that are solidly locked in to their parties. The 5 Republicans retiring are all sick of Trump and of what he's done to their party. But in 5 cases age is a factor:
Richard Shelby (R-AL)- 87
Roy Blunt (R-MO)- 71
Richard Burr (R-NC)- 66
Rob Portman (R-OH)- 66
Pat Toomey (R-PA)- 60
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)- 81
Three of the states have good chances for upgrades:
Missouri: Lucas Kunce
Ohio: Morgan Harper
Pennsylvania: John Fetterman
You can contribute to Kunce and Harper here. In all likelihood, Alabama will elect someone worse and North Carolina will either elect someone worse than Burr-- any of the Republicans running-- or a worthless Sinema-Manchin types Democrap, Cheri Beasley. I'd bet (heavily) on a Republican winning. Vermont will be a wash.
Not even close to retiring, thank God:
