Nearly one in five lawmakers who started the 119th Congress will not return to their seats next year, driven by an historic level of retirements, resignations and runs for other office.
According to NPR's congressional retirement tracker, at the end of the 2026 primary season there are 99 seats — 83 in the House and 16 in the Senate — guaranteed to have a different member from the start of 2025. (Louisiana's House primaries were delayed to Nov. 3, after congressional redistricting.)
That number is likely to rise as dozens of incumbents are locked in competitive races and could lose in November's general election. Another two senators whose seats are not up this year — Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar and Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn — are presumptive favorites to become their states' governors, at which point they would resign from Congress.
In all, 13 senators and 60 House representatives have announced their plans to retire or are running for a different office, 16 total across the two chambers died or resigned from office, and 13 incumbents were defeated in their primaries.
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The 2026 midterm election has seen a record number of retirement announcements come earlier than ever in the cycle, driven in part by the incumbent Trump administration's unpopularity with voters and concerted push for younger lawmakers by Democratic voters.
That includes retirements announced by longtime leaders like California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and a slew of politicians looking to flee Washington, D.C., for state or local offices.
An unusually high number of lawmakers have run for Senate, governor and other races — and many of them lost in the primaries, too. Of the more than 30 members of Congress seeking a different job, just over half won their primaries.
According to an NPR review of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and campaign records, more than 900 people have served in Congress since President Trump first took office in 2017. Almost two-thirds of the current Senate and 44% of the current House have been in office since the start of Trump's first term.
Only one election in the last century saw more retirements or candidates run for other offices, according to the Brookings Institution's Vital Statistics on Congress: the 1992 cycle that saw 65 House members and nine senators not seeking reelection.
Primary season led to notable changes
The party in power tends to lose ground in midterm elections, and this year is slated to be no different for Republicans — who also lead the way in retirements and resignations.
Six lawmakers died: Democratic Reps. Sylvester Turner of Texas, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Gerry Connolly of Virginia and David Scott of Georgia, along with Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Through a combination of last-minute redistricting changes, a push for generational change and Trump-backed challengers, 13 incumbents lost their seats during the primary season.
Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw was the first incumbent that voters chose to send home. Four other Texas incumbents — Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic Reps. Al Green, Christian Menefee and Julie Johnson — had their fates decided in the runoff. Only Menefee won, beating Green.
Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his May 16 primary, in a contest that Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow won in a runoff. Days later, Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie lost to Trump-backed primary challenger Ed Gallrein.
In New York's primary on June 23, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Rep. Dan Goldman were ousted in their Democratic primaries by candidates endorsed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
A week later, longtime Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette was ousted by Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who was born the same year DeGette first held the office. Michigan's Aug. 4 primary saw progressive challenger and state representative Donavan McKinney unseat Rep. Shri Thanedar.
While Trump supported Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, redistricting changes aimed at eliminating one Memphis-based seat held by Democrats had a side effect of knocking off the controversial Ogles, too. Former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher won the primary after the new district lines split up Ogles' base.
August also saw longtime Connecticut Democratic Rep. John Larson lose to a younger primary challenger and Florida Republican Cory Mills, mired in his own sets of controversies and a House Ethics Committee probe, defeated in his primary.
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