Welcome to the Wednesday, September 29, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- More members of Congress leaving for other offices than in recent cycles
- The Heart of the Primaries returns for the 2022 cycle!
- One three-term, three two-term incumbents on the ballot in Clallam County, Washington
Fewer members of Congress have retired from public office this cycle than in any since 2018
So far this year, 23 members of Congress have announced they will not run for re-election in 2022. Thirteen (56%) are not running for a different office, while the remaining 10 (44%) are running for a different office. This is the largest proportion of retiring members of Congress running for a different office since 2018.
At this point in the 2020 cycle, 25 members of Congress had announced they would not run for re-election. Nineteen (76%) did not run for a different office, while six (24%) did. At this point in 2018, 26 members of Congress had announced their retirements. Nine of them (35%) did not run for a different office, while 17 (65%) did.
More departing Republican members are choosing to run for another office this year than in 2020, driving the change in overall retirement trends. So far this year, six of the 14 departing Republicans (43%) are running for a different office rather than retiring from politics. Across the 2016, 2018, and 2020 cycles, 92 Republican members of Congress did not seek re-election. Twenty-two of them (24%) ran for a different office—roughly half the proportion that chose to do so this year.
On the Democratic side, nine members of Congress are not running for re-election, four of whom (44%) are running for a different office. In 2020, 40% of departing Democrats ran for another office, down from 50% in 2018 and 47% in 2016.
Between 2016 and 2020, 44 members of Congress left to run for a different office, including 22 Democrats and 22 Republicans. More than half of them (27) ran for the U.S. Senate, 10 ran for governor, two ran for president, and five ran for other offices.
The Heart of the Primaries returns for the 2022 election cycle!
It’s back! Ballotpedia is revving up our weekly newsletter Heart of the Primaries to keep you abreast of developments in the 2022 state and congressional primaries.
Beginning Oct. 13, we’ll send a series of five newsletters reviewing the biggest stories from 2018 and 2020 and setting the stage for 2022. Then, every two weeks beginning Nov. 11, and weekly starting in January, we’ll send out one Democratic and one Republican version of The Heart of the Primaries. You can subscribe to one or both depending on which party’s stories you want to follow. In the meantime, stay tuned for emails looking back to some of our best Heart of the Primaries stories from 2018 and 2020 and looking forward to what may come in 2022.
One three-term, three two-term incumbents on the ballot in Clallam County, Washington
This year, Ballotpedia is following municipal elections taking place in Clallam County, Wash. Located on the Olympic Peninsula in coastal Washington, Clallam has the longest-running record of voting for the winning presidential candidate, going back to 1980.
This year, 26 offices are up for election across the county’s three cities (Port Angeles, Forks, and Sequim). Nineteen of those races have incumbents running for re-election.
The county’s longest-serving incumbent, Port Angeles School Board president Sarah Methner, is running for re-election. Methner was first elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2013 and 2017. Methner and Lola Moses are running for a four-year term on the board.
Three more incumbents are running who were first elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2017: Port of Port Angeles Commissioner Colleen McAleer, Sequim Parks and Recreation Commissioner Frank Pickering, and Quillayute Parks and Recreation Commissioner Donald Grafstrom. All three are running unopposed.