- 31 members of the House of Representatives have announced they won't be running for reelection.
- By the time they leave, they'll have collectively spent around 381 years in the House.
When the 118th Congress concludes in January 2025, the House of Representatives will be losing at least 381 years of congressional experience.
As of Monday, 31 members of the House of Representatives — with each member averaging around 12 years, or 6 terms in office — have said they're not running for reelection.
Of the 31 representatives leaving the House, 20 are members of the Democratic Party, and 11 caucus with the Republican Party. Nearly half of those leaving, 15 in total so far, are doing so to run for president, a seat in the Senate, or to try to lead their states as governor or attorney general.
Among the group running for Senate include three prominent representatives from California: Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff, and Barbara Lee. By the time they leave the House in 2025, the trio will have cumulatively served 57 years representing their respective districts.
According to a poll released in mid-November by Emerson College, Schiff currently holds a small lead in the race. Each of the three candidates still has a fair shot at pulling away with the lead, as 39% of respondents said they were still undecided with just about a year left until the 2024 election.
At least four House members have cited a desire to spend more time with family as the reason they're leaving office.
"As nourishing as this job has been, it has come with profound costs to my family," Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer said in early November. "Every theatrical performance and musical recital I missed. Every family dinner that I wasn't there for. The distance I felt from my family for months after the events of January 6th. I am conscious that I didn't always deliver in the way I wanted; and hope they will forgive me for that. And I hope they know that I was really trying my best to make the world better for them."
Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko said something similar in an October post to X. "I want to spend more time with my husband, my 94-year-old mother, my three children, and my five grandchildren," she wrote.
Embattled GOP Rep. George Santos, who was sworn into office in January, said he's not running again to protect his family's privacy. His announcement came immediately after a damning report was released by the House Ethics Committee regarding his misconduct prior to and while in office.
Prior to the report's release, he had been running a poorly-funded bid for reelection.
An opportunity to formally expel Santos will likely occur in the House this week. Santos has said he thinks expulsion effort will succeed, making him the sixth person to be booted from the House.