Congressional Retirements Highest Since 1996

Rep. Ed Towns’ (D-NY) retirement announcement “makes him the 25th House retirement of this cycle. Add in the 10 Senate retirements, and you’ve got the most combined retirements since 1996, when Democratic lawmakers retired in droves after the Republican Revolution of 1994 (and many Republicans joined them),” The Fix reports.

“Add in another 15 House members running for other/higher office, and the next Congress is already promising to include plenty of turnover — with 50 out of 535 members (nearly 10 percent) already leaving their seats.”

That said, filing deadlines “have passed in 30 of the 50 states so far, meaning there may not be that many more retirements to come.”