Of the 13 Republican women in the House of Representatives, two are now set to retire after next year's election.
Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) on Friday announced she will not run for another term in 2020, per The Hill. This decision comes after Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.) earlier this year said that she, too, would not run again in 2020, an especially difficult announcement for Republicans considering her position as National Republican Congressional Committee recruitment chair.
The Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman observed that this means 2 out of 13, or 15 percent, of the Republican women currently serving in the House of Representatives are set to leave next year. Roby is also the third Republican to announce their retirement from Congress in the past week after Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) and Pete Olson (R-Texas), notes Fox News' Chad Pergram.
National Journal's Josh Kraushaar notes that with speculation Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) may run for Senate, these numbers could grow.
The number of Republican women currently serving in Congress is the smallest since 1995, Reuters reports. For comparison, there are 89 Democratic women serving in the House of Representatives, and 23 Republican women served in the last Congress. The Winning for Women Action Fund in response is aiming to get 20 Republican women elected to the House next election, with the group's spokesperson telling Reuters in June that "our numbers are so low, it's become appalling."