They’ve had enough — dozens of lawmakers won’t seek reelection to Congress in 2026
After Americans said goodbye to 2025, dozens of lawmakers will soon say the same to Congress after deciding not to run for reelection in 2026.
More than 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have announced they won’t run again for their current seats during the midterm elections.
They include at least 30 Republicans and 23 Democrats.
There is always turnover in Congress, but the number of lawmakers deciding to leave Capitol Hill has been especially high in recent election cycles.
In 2022, 2024 and now in 2026, the amount of lawmakers not seeking reelection has been more than 50.
No members of the Virginia or Maryland congressional delegations have announced plans to leave Congress, however.
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who at age 88 is the oldest member of the House, has continued to hold open the possibility that she will run again. This comes as she faces several opponents in a Democratic primary, and has been urged by a former staffer not to seek reelection.
Former U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland retired in 2024, after serving in Congress for nearly four decades.
Norton has represented the District since 1991 and this is the first election in decades in which she has faced serious opposition, including from D.C. Council members Robert White and Brooke Pinto.
Lawmakers leaving are frustrated
While many lawmakers are retiring with pride over their long years of public service, others are hitting the U.S. Capitol exits because they are frustrated by political gridlock.
The longest government shutdown in history, in which the House remained out of session, contributed to an overall feeling that lawmakers weren’t getting anything done.
There is also concern with the growing power of President Donald Trump that Congress is increasingly becoming irrelevant.
One of the president’s strongest MAGA supporters, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia’s 14th District, surprised many political observers with her announcement that she wouldn’t seek reelection.
“I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better,” she said in a video announcing her decision in November.
“If I’m cast aside by the president and the MAGA political machine and replaced by neocons, big pharma, Big Tech, military industrial war complex, foreign leaders and the elite donor class that can never, ever relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well.”
Greene has said she has no immediate plans for her political future.
But others have chosen to leave their frustration in the halls of Congress and try to lead their states from the governor’s mansion.
Ten Republican House members and one Democrat are running for governor in 2026. That’s the most GOP lawmakers to run for governor in two decades.
How will the lawmaker exodus impact the midterm elections?
Democratic congressional leaders believe they have momentum on their side, as they seek to flip control of the House.
Ironically, that is in part because two Democratic lawmakers decided not to run for reelection in 2025.
Abigail Spanberger left the House and is now the governor-elect of Virginia. Mikie Sherrill also left the House and is the governor-elect of New Jersey.
Both will be sworn into their new offices later this month.
Democrats say their victories are a sign of things to come in the midterm elections, as the party tries to retake power in the House.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson has publicly remained bullish on the GOP’s efforts to maintain control of the lower chamber.
Despite all the congressional departures and the tumult of redistricting, Johnson believes he can hold onto his slim majority.
He has also brushed aside the significance of the Democrats’ victories in Virginia and New Jersey.
“We’re looking forward to a great election, running on our record and we’re going to get all of our incumbents reelected and we’re going to add to the number here,” Johnson said on the Capitol steps, after the November elections.
Many incumbents of both parties announced they wouldn’t seek reelection in 2026, in the weeks after those elections.
One of them was former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will not seek another term after 38 years in Congress.
While she’s not running for reelection, not surprisingly, she has a different view than Johnson of what will happen in the midterm elections.
When Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week” recently started to ask, “So if the Democrats win the House back …” she jumped in and said, “No, not ‘if.’ When the Democrats win the House back.”
Whatever happens this fall, it’s likely neither party will have more than a slim House majority.