The Republican stampede out of Congress

It's only going to get worse

Rep. Darrell Issa.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)

Surprising almost no one, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday that he wouldn't be running for re-election. Issa, known to most people for his entertainingly bumbling turn as chairman of the House Oversight Committee during the Obama years, is one more wildebeest in the midst of a Republican stampede, dashing headlong for the exits. He followed his fellow Californian Rep. Ed Royce (R), who announced this week that he's giving up his chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee and saying goodbye. And there are more to come.

The number of Republican incumbents in the House calling it quits has now surged past 30, more at this stage of the cycle than in any recent election. It isn't hard to see why, since everyone is predicting an enormous Democratic wave that sweeps over every competitive race, and a few we didn't realize would be competitive. If you're looking at a tight race like Issa was — he won re-election in 2016 by a mere 1,621 votes — you're probably asking yourself whether you're doomed and there's no point bothering to run again. That's the thing about wave elections: They sweep away all local concerns and the ability of an individual candidate to stop it, as voters just cry their displeasure in the voting booth with little regard to who's on the ballot.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.