Cliff Notes
- Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a moderate from Nebraska, announced he will not seek re-election, citing a lack of enthusiasm for another term amid increasing partisanship in Congress.
- The current wave of retirements includes 36 House members, with 21 republicans and 15 democrats, potentially impacting the GOP’s efforts to maintain their House majority in the upcoming midterms.
- Many retiring members, including Bacon and Rep. Jared Golden, express concerns over the toxic political climate, indicating a shift towards prioritising personal and family commitments over public office.
36 House members won’t seek re-election amid partisan dysfunction
Republican Rep. Don Bacon won nine heavily contested GOP primary battles and general elections over the past decade in his swing U.S. House district.
But the retired Air Force general and moderate Republican who represents an Omaha, Nebraska-anchored congressional district told Fox News Digital that “the fire wasn’t there” anymore.
Bacon, who announced this summer that he wouldn’t run for a sixth two-year term in Congress in next year’s midterms, is one of 36 U.S. House members who’ve announced they won’t seek re-election next year.
And the surge in retirements may impact next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans are aiming to protect their fragile House majority.
AS CONGRESS GROWS OLDER, DEBATE HEATS UP OVER WHEN TO STEP ASIDE
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska is retiring at the end of next year rather than seek re-election to a sixth term in Congress.
“We’re above average,” noted David Wasserman, a senior editor and elections analyst at the non-partisan political handicapper “The Cook Report,” as he pointed to the pace of House retirement announcements so far this cycle.
And we’ve still got six weeks left until the calendar hits 2026.
Waves of retirement announcements traditionally come in the final month or two, amid the holiday season, in the year before congressional elections.
The party breakdown so far on the retirements: 15 Democrats and 21 Republicans.
DEMOCRAT RETIREMENT GIVES GOP BOOST IN BID TO FLIP KEY HOUSE SWING SEAT
A handful of the Democrats headed for the exits are in their 70s and 80s and retiring after long tenures in the House. The most prominent is 85-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But in a continued sign that the bitter partisanship in the House has made the lower chamber in Congress far from a pleasant work environment, most of the members who are passing on re-election are much younger.
Chairman Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, speaks at a news conference after the House narrowly passed a bill forwarding President Donald Trump‘s agenda at the U.S. Capitol on May 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Among those forgoing re-election next year is 53-year-old Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, the House Budget Committee chair who shared his retirement news first with Fox News Digital.
“I have a firm conviction, much like our founders did, that public service is a lifetime commitment, but public office is and should be a temporary stint in stewardship, not a career,” Arrington said.
Also on that list is moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who is only 43.
SENIOR REPUBLICAN SAYS HE’LL ‘MISS THE CLOWNS,’ NOT ‘THE CIRCUS’ AS HE EYES LIFE AFTER CONGRESS
“After 11 years as a legislator, I have grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community — behavior that, too often, our political leaders exhibit themselves,” Golden wrote last week in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News, where he revealed his unexpected decision.
“I don’t fear losing. What has become apparent to me is that I now dread the prospect of winning. Simply put, what I could accomplish in this increasingly unproductive Congress pales in comparison to what I could do in that time as a husband, a father and a son,” Golden emphasized.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, attends a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, July 17, 2025.
Pointing to Golden’s comments, Bacon noted, “He said something I was feeling. The thought of winning was unattractive this cycle. If it feels like it’s a little bit depressing to win, then better let somebody else run.”
“I think that’s where this hyper-partisan ugliness fits in. The thought of winning and going through another two years of this was not a fulfilling thought,” he added.
VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM CRITICIZES ‘EXTREME’ LEFT IN SHOCKING 2026 ANNOUNCEMENT
Former Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, who retired a year ago after serving a dozen years in the House, said the dysfunction and political tension in Congress was “definitely a factor” in her decision to leave.
“It had gotten so much more difficult over 12 years to work across the aisle,” Kuster told Fox News Digital. “It had gotten much more fractured, partisan, less congenial.”
Kuster said “a big factor for me was that most of the moderate Republicans that I worked with all the time had left Congress. The people who were coming in were more hard right partisans.”
Former Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, seen filing for re-election, at the Statehouse in Concord, N.H., retired from Congress a year ago after serving a dozen years in the House.
Bacon, who describes himself as a Ronald Reagan-style, old-fashioned Republican, joked that he was “stuck in the middle” with “crazies on the right and crazies on the left.”
TOP HOUSE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN REVEALS HE WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION IN 2026
While some, like Bacon and Arrington, are taking a break from politics, most of those not seeking re-election to their House seats are running for statewide offices next year.
Wasserman said that “on the Republican side, there’s a sense that not much will get done beyond OBBBA in the next two years of Trump’s presidency.”
OBBBA is the acronym for One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the massive GOP domestic policy bill passed along partisan lines this summer by the Republican-controlled House and Senate that is the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.
“They’ve made the heavy lift and now there are opportunities to be more impactful elsewhere,” Wasserman said.
The bitter battle between Republicans and Democrats over the measure was another sign of the vicious partisan climate on Capitol Hill.
But Bacon remained optimistic about the future of Congress.
“When folks move on, new people move in, and I know there’s good people out there,” he said.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.”