The U.S. Capitol is seen throughout a procedural vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July in Washington, D.C.
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Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
More than a tenth of the present Congress has now indicated they won’t return to their seats after the 2026 midterms, pushed by redistricting, retirements and lawmakers working for various places of work.
According to NPR’s congressional retirement tracker, as of Dec. 17, 2025, there are 54 present representatives and senators who’re retiring or working for a special workplace — 10 senators and 44 House members.
They embrace the retirement of longtime leaders like California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the deliberate resignation of onetime Trump ally-turned-foe Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and a slew of politicians seeking to flee Washington, D.C., for state or native places of work.
There are 25 retiring from public workplace with the remaining working for a special workplace — 15 seeking to turn into governor of their state and 13 seeking to make the soar from House to Senate.
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy is seeking to turn into his state’s lawyer normal.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet should not up for reelection in 2026, however would resign their seats in the event that they win their respective gubernatorial races.
They be part of eight lawmakers who started the 119th Congress in January and have since died or resigned. Former Rep. Mikie Sherrill resigned her New Jersey House seat efficient Nov. 20 after profitable her race for governor earlier within the month.
On tempo for document departures within the Trump period
According to an NPR overview of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and marketing campaign information, 900 folks have served in Congress since President Trump first took workplace in 2017. That contains 132 senators, 751 representatives — and 17 who’ve served in each chambers.
Almost two-thirds of the present Senate and 44% of the present House have served for the reason that begin of Trump’s time period, too.
The most typical approach to go away Congress within the Trump period is retirement, as greater than 140 lawmakers have achieved from 2017-2024.
Pelosi’s announcement that she wouldn’t search one other time period got here shortly after November 2025 off-year elections that noticed Democrats surge in races throughout the nation. Greene’s shock resolution to resign efficient Jan. 5, 2026, got here after a really public conflict with President Trump over his second-term agenda and the discharge of the Epstein recordsdata.
Ahead of the 2026 midterms, many older Democrats are opting to cross the torch to a youthful era, like Sens. Dick Durbin and Jeanne Shaheen and Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Dwight Evans and Danny Davis.
An unusually excessive variety of lawmakers are working for governor, Senate and different political places of work, together with 12 House members and three senators working for governor of their state.
The 54 bulletins made earlier than the tip of 2025 is a contemporary document for this far forward of the election for each chambers. It additionally contains essentially the most Senate turnover since 2012.
Redistricting and slender majorities in a midterm 12 months are elements
Republicans have slender management of each the House and the Senate heading into an election 12 months the place the occasion faces headwinds with voters sad with Trump’s second-term agenda.
Efforts by Republican-led states to enact mid-decade gerrymandering to realize extra favorable districts — and retaliatory redrawing by Democratic-led states like California — have led to a reshuffling of boundary strains that has accelerated some lawmakers’ selections.
The Supreme Court dominated that Texas’ new congressional map can be utilized in 2026, coming simply forward of the state’s Dec. 8 major qualifying deadline that noticed 9 incumbents retire, file for the Senate or run for different places of work.
California’s drastic redraw that favors Democrats may see some focused Republicans announce retirement or be pressured right into a major problem towards one other sitting Republican.
Several different states should search to redraw their House maps forward of their qualifying deadlines.
