House Lawmakers End the Year Eyeing the Exits

The House will likely depart Washington for the holidays this week without addressing a number of high-stakes issues. Instead, Congress is ending the year with a lot of infighting and a nearly unprecedented number of lawmakers heading for the exits.

While there are always retirements each term, members have decided to call it quits rather than seek another term in a body that has had more drama than actual success passing legislation. More House Republicans are leaving Capitol Hill so far than Democrats. The Republican Party is already losing 18 House members compared to 13 House Democrats — with one member already gone: former Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who won New Jersey’s gubernatorial race last month. (These numbers do not include House members running for the Senate).

The swarm of GOP members looking to leave Washington is more surprising due to the fact that Republicans are the ones in charge. Some in the party are mad at how the Trump administration has treated them. Others are fed up with Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican women in particular) over how he blocked a vote to release the Epstein files for months. Republicans are also really mad at each other. Democrats, meanwhile, aren’t having a great time, either, and lack any real power.

Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who decided to retire from Congress, told reporters Wednesday that the House has changed over the last two decades, “in some respects, for the worse.”

“The level of partisanship, rancor, vitriolic debate, demonizing the other side of the aisle, not willing to work across the aisle to get things done for the American people and just the overall toxic environment,” McCaul said of what has gotten worse. “There’s a lot of that in this party and the overall atmosphere.”

One Republican aide said if a new crop of inexperienced members comes to Congress, who will likely be even more partisan than the members who are leaving, “things around here are going to get a lot worse.”

Democratic Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, who is retiring for health and family reasons, told NOTUS that there is dissatisfaction and dysfunction in Congress that he has not seen before in his seven-year House career.

“We live in unprecedented times,” García said. “I think people are worried about how you restore the norms and adherence to the law and the institution after these four years of this administration. Lots of rebuilding to do.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican giving up her seat to run for South Carolina governor, published an opinion piece in The New York Times about how unsatisfying and unproductive being a member is, putting significant blame on House Republican leadership.

“The obstacles to achieving almost anything are enough to make any member who came to Washington with noble intentions ask: Why am I even here?” Mace wrote. “The House’s problems didn’t start with this Congress. They’ve been building for decades. The current leadership has failed to reverse it — and in some ways deepened it.”

Perhaps the most high-profile Republican to call it quits, conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, said she was resigning because she didn’t want her district “to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president we all fought for” for her criticisms of President Donald Trump in the last few months.

“My life is filled with happiness, and my true convictions remain unchanged because my self-worth is not defined by a man, but instead by God,” she said in her resignation video.

Some members say that things haven’t really gotten worse, per se, but the ebb and flow of retirements is a normal part of life on Capitol Hill.

“It’s always been contentious here,” Rep. Ralph Norman, who is retiring to run for governor of South Carolina, told NOTUS. “It’s always been floor fights and always been disagreements. This is no different.”

Rep. Kevin Hern told NOTUS he hadn’t seen members as miserable as has been reported.

“You find out that when you come up here, you’re a voice of 435, versus going back home and being a voice of one,” Hern said. “I think the press likes to make it a big deal, like everybody’s frustrated and unhappy. That’s not what I’ve seen.”

Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chair of the House Budget Committee, said his retirement was bittersweet after finishing out the massive reconciliation bill earlier this year.

“I got to shepherd the reconciliation bill through, and it’s a big lift. It was a lot of work. It was a great sort of capstone legislative achievement,” he said. “I’ve got a young family. I got a small window that’s closing to engage in a more meaningful way in their lives. And so it just made sense. But I was torn. I have mixed emotions because I want to go for another reconciliation bill.”

Some House lawmakers had optimism about leaving but told NOTUS there’s more satisfaction to be found elsewhere. Rep. Don Bacon, a self-defined “Reagan Republican” who won a district that Trump lost twice, seemed very excited to return home and spend more time with his grandchildren after 10 years in the House.

“A 55-day-or-so shut down and some of the antagonisms are not helpful, but I would say they’re secondary for me. Granted, maybe if it was more rewarding, I don’t know,” Bacon said of the House’s environment.

Republicans running for other offices see the possibility for more productivity in state-level government versus the slow-moving House.

“Certainly part of what appeals about being governor to members — this has been a constant over the decades — is that generally state governments are more nimble,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, who is running for South Dakota governor, said. “For people who have an entrepreneurial or executive mindset, being a governor is quite a bit more satisfying than being in the House.”

“Particularly on the Republican side, you’re always going to have a certain number of people who are going to have a certain faith in solutions at the state level,” Johnson said. “I’m sure there are people who are big mad around here, there always are.”

Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, dismissed concerns about Republicans retiring or seeking higher office at a higher rate than Democrats as the GOP fights to keep its majority.

“I’m not concerned about it because there’s only a couple that are in competitive seats. Most of them are safe Republicans that are retiring. I’m not really concerned about it,” he told NOTUS in an interview. “If there’s folks that we hear rumors or have concerns about, I go and talk to them proactively and just ask them not to surprise me.

When asked why he believed so many members were seeking other offices, Hudson responded: “They all have their own reasons.”