Free Republic

The recent announcement by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that he would not seek re-election in 2020 sparked new worries among the GOP that retaking the House in 2020 might be nearly impossible. Although Sensenbrenner's district should be "safe" (as should about half of the more than a dozen seats in districts where Republicans are retiring), it never helps to lose an incumbent. That said, in 2020, the control of the House may be well near irrelevant. Over time, the House has had one major constitutional duty: the budget. All spending and taxation bills must originate in the House. But in all...

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) is retiring after more than 40 years in Congress. The 76-year-old Republican, who is the second-most senior member of the House, announced Wednesday that he will not be seeking reelection in 2020. He will serve out the rest of his 21st term in Congress, which ends in January 2021.

Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) on Wednesday announced he will not seek reelection to a sixth term in Congress, adding to the rush of Texas Republican lawmakers heading for the exit. Flores, the first Republican to represent the Waco area since Reconstruction, won his seat in the Tea Party wave of 2010. He beat then-Rep. Chet Edwards (D) by a wider margin than any other challenger who ousted a sitting Democrat that year. He said in a statement he intended to honor a term-limit pledge he made when he first ran for office. “After much prayer over the past few days...

RUSH: Look, you’ll tell you something else is happening out there, folks. I saw… Have you noted all the Republican members of Congress that are again retiring? I think one of the reasons we lost the House in 2018 is that there were a huge number of Republicans who retired. Now, we were told the reason was, “Well, they’re being term limited out of their committee chairmanships, Mr. Limbaugh, and they don’t want to go back to just being regular members of the House. What’s in it for them? Once you become a committee chairman, you can’t go back to...