Pelosi in Peril: 32 House Democrats Have Announced Retirement

Ryan DeLarme,
June 14th, 2022

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in a real political pickle ahead of November’s midterm elections. Of the 49 House lawmakers who’ve announced they will not be seeking reelection, 32 of them are Democrats.

Fifty-five total members of Congress will not be running this year, which breaks down into 6 U.S. Senators and 49 House lawmakers.

Ballotpedia reports:

• The 55 retiring members include 32 Democrats and 23 Republicans, accounting for 11.9% of the Democratic caucus and 8.8% of the Republican caucus.

• The 11.9% retirement rate among Democrats is the largest since 2014 when 8.5% of Democrats did not run for re-election.

• The 8.8% retirement rate among Republicans is the second-lowest since 2014. The only year with a lower retirement rate was 2016 when 8.6% of Republicans retired.

• Democrats had their lowest retirement rates out of the past five cycles in 2018 and 2020, when 7.4% and 3.4%, respectively, of the caucus did not seek re-election.

• Republicans had their highest retirement rates out of the past five cycles in those years, with 12.6% of the caucus retiring in 2018 and 11.5% in 2020.

The 8.8% retirement rate among Republicans is the second-lowest since 2014. The only year with a lower retirement rate was 2016 when 8.6% of Republicans retired. Democrats had their lowest retirement rates out of the past five cycles in 2018 and 2020, when 7.4% and 3.4%, respectively, of the caucus did not seek re-election. Republicans had their highest retirement rates out of the past five cycles in those years, with 12.6% of the caucus retiring in 2018 and 11.5% in 2020

As it stands, Pelosi has a minuscule majority in the House of Representatives and Republicans win back the lower chamber, well, it’s already being reported that Pelosi will likely retire.

Nationwide redistricting is about to take place and will likely see Republicans picking up some seats. Even Democrats see the writing on the wall, many believe they will lose control of the house after the midterms.

While speaking with Politico, Tim Persico, the executive director of the Maloney-led Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), shared data with incumbents showing that several House Democrats are at risk of losing their seats to Republican challengers.

“We are not afraid of this data … We’re not trying to hide this,” Persico told Politico. “If [Democrats] use it, we’re going to hold the House. That’s what this data tells us, but we gotta get in action.”

No matter which way you slice it, Democrats have their work out for them. The GOP are raking in historic gobs of cash, setting fundraising records. In addition to that, the once-in-a-decade redistricting process – pegged to the 2020 census – is expected to generally favor Republicans over Democrats