Congressional frustration fuels record exodus

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 00:00.350

hey leslie well look there's a lot of frustrations with congress these days but it's not just for people outside members themselves are growing frustrated and right now we have seen fifty three lawmakers that's forty four members of the house and nine senators announced that

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 00:15.710

they will not be running for reelection for their current seats and this is a record for this time in the cycle i mean remember we're only about halfway through the current cycle midterms or later in the year we are expecting to see more retirements when it comes in january

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 00:31.910

about pedia which has been tracking all of this their person covering retirements brianna ryan said that part of the reason for departures is that historically the party in the white house does not do well when it comes to the midterms and some of the republicans are seeing the

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 00:46.950

writing on the wall

Briana Ryan (Writer) 00:49.990

there might be some incumbents who may say you know i'm in a safe seat but i don't want to be in a minority for this congress or there might be some members who might say i'm in a i'm facing a tough election and i don't really want to go through that again

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 01:10.040

other lawmakers who are known for working across the aisle like don bacon jared golden tom tillis have also announced their retirement and that of course could impact the ability to get things done in a bipartisan manner in the next congress plus you have several lawmakers who

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 01:24.640

are critical to industries like cynthia lummis who's a very big heavyweight for the crypto industry who is also announcing her retirement now while we do have a higher number of folks who are looking to leave the hill not all of them are looking to leave it entirely of this for

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 01:39.670

fourteen members of the house are looking to leave their house seat and see if they can run and win in the senate leslie

Leslie Picker (Financial Reporter) 01:47.470

emily net net what's the expectation on how this affects the party divide it seems like it's essentially a wash

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 01:57.500

i mean pretty close i mean there are slightly more republicans i think you have about thirty republicans who around i want to say twenty thirty twenty three democrats who are who are retiring at this point we'll see what comes in january of course but usually in the past what a

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 02:11.660

lot of what we're looking for here is are those critical swing swing seat swing districts are they able to either hold on to the current party or do they wind up flipping so definitely again jared golden up in maine don bacon in nebraska those are going to be two very critical

Emily Wilkins (Washington Correspondent) 02:27.190

races to watch to see if the other party winds up taking those seats but either way we are expecting i think a very very close whatever the outcome is going to be next congress just because there are so few seats that are able to flip at this point