In Defying the Odds, we discuss state and congressional elections as well as the presidential race. The update -- recently published -- looks at political and demographic trends through the 2018 midterm.
Twenty House Republicans have already announced they will retire or run for another office at the end of the current congressional term, compared with only eight Democrats who have done so.
Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) is the latest to retire, bringing the tally to 28 House members heading for the exits at the end of 2020. (Others have resigned and will be replaced by then.) King won New York’s 2nd District by 6 percentage points in 2018, and Donald Trump carried the district by 8.9 in 2016.
For many retiring Republican members, the often unspoken reason for their departure is frustration with President Trump and his grip on the party.
“Did any member of this conference expect that their job would start out every morning trying to go through the list of what’s happening in tweets of the day?” Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) asked The Post’s Rachael Bade, referring to Trump’s Twitter habits. “We’re not moving forward right now. We are simply thrashing around.”In 2018, King's margin was his smallest since he first won the seat in 1992.
