Twenty-three members of Congress have announced they will not seek re-election in 2026

By

Briana Ryan

Since our last update on June 16, 2025, four members of the U.S. Congress—one member of the U.S. Senate and three members of the U.S. House of Representatives—have announced that they will not seek re-election in 2026. 

Here are the four members who have announced their retirements since our last update, as well as how three independent race forecasters have rated the 2026 general election for each seat:

  • Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced on June 29, 2025, that he will retire from public office. The Cook Political Report rated the 2026 general election for the seat as Toss-up, Inside Elections rated it Battleground Republican, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Toss-up.
  • Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) announced on June 30, 2025, that he will retire from public office. The Cook Political Report rated the 2026 general election for the district as Lean Democratic, Inside Elections rated it Toss-up, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Lean Democratic.
  • Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Penn.) announced on June 30, 2025, that he will retire from public office. The Cook Political Report rated the 2026 general election for the district as Solid Democratic, Inside Elections rated it Solid Democratic, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Safe Democratic.
  • Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) announced on June 30, 2025, that he will run for governor of South Dakota. The Cook Political Report rated the 2026 general election for the district as Solid Republican, Inside Elections rated it Solid Republican, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Safe Republican.

Including the announcements above, 23 members of Congress—seven senators and 16 representatives—have announced they will not seek re-election in 2026. Compared to previous years, this year has had the highest number of retirement announcements at this point since 2018.

U.S. Senate

Seven senators—four Democrats and three Republicans—announced they will not seek re-election in 2026. Six senators—Tillis, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.)—are retiring from public office. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is the only senator retiring to run for another office.

At this point in the last four election cycles, there were four retirement announcements in 2024, five in 2022, four in 2020, and none in 2018.

U.S. House of Representatives

Sixteen representatives—six Democrats and seven Republicans—will not seek re-election in 2026. Of the 16 representatives not seeking re-election:

At this point in the last four election cycles, there were 11 retirement announcements in 2024, 14 in 2022, seven in 2020, and nine in 2018.

Between January 2011 and June 30, 2025, we followed 370 announcements from members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives who announced they would not seek re-election. January had the highest number of members announcing they would not run for re-election at 69. The fewest announcements—15—happened in August.