Congressional incumbents not seeking reelection in 2018 (as of 1/31/18)

Share

Midterm elections usually bring about a number of ‘retirements’ from Congress. Some are running for other seats.

According to Roll Call, a non-partisan Congressional newspaper, usually about 22 representatives don’t run for reelection during the midterms. This year the number is 49 (out of 435). Ten of them are running for the Senate, and nine are running for governorships.

Incumbents have a massive advantage when running for office, and are overwhelmingly re-elected each cycle. Over the last 35 years, reelection rates were solidly over 80% reelection for the House, and around or over 80% for the Senate, according to Open Secrets.

Three senators (out of 100) have also announced they will not be back: Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Currently the Senate has 51 Republican members, 47 Democratic members, and two Independents who caucus with the Democrats. The House of Representatives has 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats.

Today South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy announced that he would not seek reelection. Representative Gowdy came to national attention as the Republican leader of the Benghazi commision, investigation potential wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton’s State Department & her use of private email servers.

Here is a list of the Representatives who will not seek reelection or another office (all lists are from Ballotpedia):

Name: Party: Current office:
Trey Gowdy  Republican South Carolina, District 4
Robert Brady  Democrat Pennsylvania, District 1
Bill Shuster  Republican Pennsylvania, District 9
Blake Farenthold  Republican Texas, District 27
Bob Goodlatte  Republican Virginia, District 6
Carol Shea-Porter  Democratic New Hampshire, District 1
Charles W. Dent  Republican Pennsylvania, District 15
Darrell Issa  Republican California, District 49
Dave Reichert  Republican Washington, District 8
David Trott  Republican Michigan, District 11
Edward Royce  Republican California, District 39
Frank LoBiondo  Republican New Jersey, District 2
Gene Green  Democratic Texas, District 29
Gregg Harper  Republican Mississippi, District 3
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen  Republican Florida, District 27
Jeb Hensarling  Republican Texas, District 5
Jim Bridenstine  Republican Oklahoma, District 1
Joe Barton  Republican Texas, District 6
John Delaney  Democratic Maryland, District 6
John J. Duncan, Jr.  Republican Tennessee, District 2
Lamar Smith  Republican Texas, District 21
Luis V. Gutierrez  Democratic Illinois, District 4
Lynn Jenkins  Republican Kansas, District 2
Niki Tsongas  Democratic Massachusetts, District 3
Patrick Meehan  Republican Pennsylvania, District 7
Rodney Frelinghuysen  Republican New Jersey, District 11
Ruben J. Kihuen  Democratic Nevada, District 4
Sam Johnson  Republican Texas, District 3
Sandy Levin  Democratic Michigan, District 9
Ted Poe  Republican Texas, District 2

These representatives want to go to the Senate:

Name: Party: Current office:
Beto O’Rourke  Democratic Texas, District 16
Evan Jenkins  Republican West Virginia, District 3
Jacky Rosen  Democratic Nevada, District 3
James B. Renacci  Republican Ohio, District 16
Kyrsten Sinema  Democratic Arizona, District 9
Lou Barletta  Republican Pennsylvania, District 11
Luke Messer  Republican Indiana, District 6
Marsha Blackburn  Republican Tennessee, District 7
Martha McSally  Republican Arizona, District 2
Todd Rokita  Republican Indiana, District 4

These representatives would like to be called Governor:

Colleen Hanabusa  Democratic Hawaii, District 1
Diane Black  Republican Tennessee, District 6
Jared Polis  Democratic Colorado, District 2
Kristi L. Noem  Republican South Dakota, At-Large District
Michelle Lujan Grisham  Democratic New Mexico, District 1
Raul R. Labrador  Republican Idaho, District 1
Ron DeSantis  Republican Florida, District 6
Steve Pearce  Republican New Mexico, District 2
Tim Walz  Democratic Minnesota, District 1

These people have already left the House or Senate or are on the way out:

Al Franken  Democratic U.S. Senate, Minnesota
Jason Chaffetz  Republican U.S. House, Utah, District 3
Jeff Sessions  Republican U.S. Attorney General (was AL Sen)
John Conyers, Jr.  Democratic U.S. House, Michigan, District 13
Michael “Mick” Mulvaney  Republican Director of the U.S. OMB (was SC Rep)
Mike Pompeo  Republican Director of the CIA (was KA Rep)
Patrick J. Tiberi  Republican U.S. House, Ohio, District 12
Ryan Zinke  Republican U.S. Secretary of the Interior (was MT Rep)
Tim Murphy  Republican U.S. House, Pennsylvania, District 18
Tom Price  Republican Former Secretary of HHS (was GA Rep)
Trent Franks  Republican U.S. House, Arizona, District 8
Xavier Becerra  Democratic Attorney General of California (was CA Rep)

 

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

The Scoop: Weds. July 3rd, 2024 Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

Hurricane Beryl is hitting Jamaica today and will hit The...

Woman standing at podium in white jacket with four men in the background.
GOP lawmakers want to invoke inherent contempt. Here’s what it means.

The U.S. House approved a measure finding Attorney General Merrick...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Counterspin
Player position: