House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) hopes to keep the House majority past the midterms are slimming as droves of vulnerable Democrats continue to announce retirement or seek higher office instead of fighting tough reelection.
Democrats are also facing redistricting across the country and a president whose approval ratings are cratering.
So far, 13 Democrats have decided to officially call it quits on the House, leaving their seats open for a competitive fight and giving Republicans a chance to gain another seat. House Republicans only need to net five seats to gain the majority and retire Pelosi as the speaker.
This week, two longtime Democrats, Reps. David Price (D-NC) and Mike Doyle (D-PA), both loyal confidants to Pelosi, announced their retirement. Additionally, last week Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), another Pelosi loyalist and chairman of the House Budget Committee, announced he was retiring from public life.
These three Democrats joined the five other retirees, the majority of whom represent highly competitive districts: Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) announced in October 2019 that she would only be running for one more term in Congress, which expires in 2022; Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX) and Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) announced their retirements in March; Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) announced she would not seek reelection in April; and scandal-ridden Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) announced he would be retiring in August.
Five Democrats have announced they are running for a different office: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) announced in April he would be running for the U.S. Senate seat in his home state being vacated by retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH); Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) announced in May he is running for governor in Florida, after previously being governor in the state as a Republican from 2007 to 2011; Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) announced in June she would run for a U.S. Senate seat in the Sunshine State; Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) announced in August, he would be running for the U.S. Senate seat in his home state being vacated by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA); and Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) announced in September her candidacy for the Los Angeles mayoral race to replace outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti (D).
With the news of retirements and members seeking other offices, there have even been reports showing Pelosi herself contemplating leaving elected office. “Sometime in the not-so-distant future, probably after next year’s midterm elections, Pelosi will announce that she’s stepping down,” the Atlantic wrote.
Breitbart News has extensively reported on Pelosi’s majority crumbling in the past. Breitbart News has kept track of the Democrats’ struggle to find new candidates willing to run for office and face published scrutiny. As the midterms loom in the distance, if the Democrats continue to be unsuccessful in finding recruits and many members looking to retire or run for other elected offices, Pelosi’s chances of keeping the slim majority are dwindling.
Democrats trying to fight to stay in the majority are also facing tough redistricting battles. Politico recently outlined the House Democrats spending their last two elections (2018 and 2020) talking about their achievements of unseating members in red districts — which have since gotten more competitive over the years. However, they did not realize the majority of the districts where millions of dollars and hundreds of hours were spend fighting could disappear after redistricting.
President Joe Biden saw his lowest job approval numbers. Biden’s job approval found a new low of 36.4 percent, during the first nine months of his presidency, according to a Zogby poll. While the poll also found that 61.3 percent of the respondents gave Biden a negative rating, the president was underwater with all age categories, particularly the younger generation of voters between 18 and 29 years old, which viewed him 63 percent negatively and only 34 percent positively.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.