Members of Congress Are Leaving in Droves
A record number of elected officials have announced that they will not seek re-election, leaving many to wonder what the final straw was for many of them.
In the month of November alone, 13 senators and representatives have announced they won't seek re-election, which is the highest number of resignations in more than a decade. In total, seven US Senators and 31 House Members have announced their intent to leave Congress at the end of 2024. This record number of departures comes at a time when partisan stalemates have left the legislature in grid-lock, with the threat of another government shut down on the horizon.
Capitol Hill has become saturated with personalities who seem intent on seeking the limelight regardless of the cost to their constituents. In the past few weeks we have had allegations of sucker punches thrown by top Republican leadership in the halls of Congress, childish insults being made on the record by men during important Congressional hearings, and lingering resentments over the House Speaker battle which yielded a relative unknown attempting to lead this unruly GOP.
The last few months have also seen Members of Congress dispense with all attempts of actually passing any kind of legislation, in exchange for a focus on partisan censures and impeachments to quell the free speech of the opposition. A trade has been made by too many elected officials, in which their sworn duty to serve the public has been replaced by a ravenous appetite for attention, and it seems the more outrageous the behavior, the better.
In addition to the professional digressions, political ambition has also played a role in the record number of officials departing their seats in favor of trading up. Nine Democratic House Members are vacating their Congressional seats to run for the US Senate. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) announced this last weekend that his long shot bid for the Democratic nomination in 2024 will be an “all or nothing” campaign, as he won't be seeking re-election to Congress.
The recent death of Senator Dianne Feinstein and the record age of the two presidential frontrunners has emphasized the problem that the 118th Congress is also the oldest Senate in history. Pew Research finds that 82% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats now support putting a maximum age limit in place for elected officials in Washington, D.C. (It’s also worth noting that 82% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans favor similar limits for Supreme Court justices, who have lifetime tenure once their appointment is confirmed.)
Another major factor for Republican retirements is their inability to put forth any serious legislation due to the stronghold Donald Trump and the MAGA movement still maintains over the GOP. Egregious antics that support Trump and his self-serving agenda seem to be rewarded by access to grassroots conservative donors, who are more motivated by retribution against Democrats than any kind of policies that might be put forth.
The issue of George Santos (R-NY) and his recent criminal indictments has also placed a heavy burden on Republicans to either condemn or support someone, who for all intents and purposes appears to be the worst characterization of what a modern day political purports to be — a flim-flam con man who will do anything to gain access to campaign coffers.
Last Friday, Santos doubled down on his corrupt behavior by daring members of his own party to remove him from office. “You want to expel me? I’ll wear it like a badge of honor,” Santos declared, adding: “I’ll be the only one expelled because people did not like me.” Santos, who survived a vote to expel in early November, claims he “will defend [him]self to the end of time.” However, Santos has also predicted that he will be expelled from Congress as early as this week following another vote to expel him launched by a member of his own party.
The Santos vote to expel may not be as simple as Congress banding together to do what is right from an ethics standpoint. Republicans currently hold a four-seat edge in the US House of Representatives, pending the swearing in of newly elected Celeste Maloy (R-UT). Ousting Santos would essentially be giving his seat away by creating a special election in which Democrats could easily recapture the seat.
Another cause for Republicans to abandon ship right now is the all-time fundraising low that the Republican Party has been experiencing as of late. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has just disclosed it has $9.1 million in cash on hand as of Oct. 30, the lowest amount for any Federal Election Commission report since Feb. 2015. Compare this staggeringly low number with the $20 million the RNC had in 2016 and the roughly $61 million it had four years ago, when Trump was in the White House.
While Ronna McDaniel, head of the RNC, has attempted to downplay the lack of funding by saying the situation is not unusual, she had to admit that the reason for the current hardship is that donors are still focused on donating to individual presidential candidates. McDaniel might be trying to pretend that this proclivity amongst donors will change, but the message to national Republicans from donors has become clear - Donald Trump is now in charge of messaging and pulling in the cash and everyone in the GOP must bow to his agenda, or else. If another candidate were to win the Republican Primary and become the party nominee, it is hard to imagine that the RNC’s fundraising problems would abate.
The bottom line in much of the Congressional malaise appears to be the inability for anyone to get any work done, given the extreme divide in priorities amongst members. As Congress returns this week to begin the end-of-the-year legislative sprint, the pending issues including: a looming budget funding deadline; funding for Ukraine; a contemptuous battle over a Defense Bill Policy; and military promotions that have slowed to a crawl due to one Republican’s protest of a military abortion policy still weigh heavy in the background for all of Congress. Perhaps the easiest solution in getting the job done for a record number of elected officials, is to abandon what appears to be a sinking ship.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
Paid subscriptions and one-time tributes embedded in each article allow me to keep publishing critical and informative work that is sometimes made available to the public — thank you. If you like this piece and want to support independent journalism further, you can forward this article to others, get a paid subscription or gift subscription, or donate as much as you like today.
So the point is that half these people we pay an amount nearing a quarter million annual for EACH pretty much refuse to show up and do the jobs they were hired for.
While calling struggling families of people who actually work welfare queens.
Fuck these people with a hedge trimmer.
Considering the fact that each of the 50 states is allowed 2 senators regardless of how insignificant the population of their state, seems absurd to anyone cogent enough to do the math of gross misrepresentation in states like California compared to tiny Wyoming, or Idaho...democracy has become a failed and highly veiled system of ignorance!