Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania announced his retirement Monday after 14 terms in the House, becoming the latest Democrat to retire just over a year from the midterms.
Doyle represents Pittsburgh and is the dean of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation. His decision comes as Democrats seek to defend their 220-212 House majority and they struggle to pass President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda despite their control of both chambers.`
Hours before Doyle officially made his announcement, Democratic state Rep. Summer Lee filed to run for his safe, blue seat. Though its boundaries are likely to change after the state completes its redistricting process, Pittsburgh is overwhelmingly Democratic and neither party has total control over creating and adopting the new map.
Democratic Rep. David Price of North Carolina, who has held office since 1997 and from 1987-1995, also announced his retirement Monday. Though his seat also leans Democratic, Republicans have complete control over North Carolina’s redistricting process, meaning that they could attempt combine his seat with another in a bid to build on their 8-5 House margin.
The pair are just the latest veteran Democrats to announce their retirements. Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the chair of the House Budget Committee, announced his retirement last week, weeks after Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, who won in a district that former President Donald Trump twice carried, did the same.
“It’s been an incredible journey since my first campaign in 2006 until now,” Yarmuth said. “I will continue to fight for Louisville in Washington for another 15 months, and then, I will retire from Congress.”
Earlier in the year Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, whose district sits just west of Boyle’s, announced he would forgo re-election to run for the state’s open Senate seat, while, in April, Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, announced she would retire as well.
“A glut of open seats can make a bad political environment much worse for the party that suffers,” The Hill Monday.
“In the Democratic wave of 2008, 12 of the 21 seats Republicans lost were held by incumbents who opted not to run again. Two years later, Republicans won 14 seats in which incumbent Democrats did not appear on the ballot. In 2018, 37 Republicans did not seek re-election — and Democrats won 13 of those seats.”
“If vulnerable Democrats were smart, they’d retire now and save themselves the embarrassment of having to defend their toxic socialist agenda,” NRCC spokesman Michael McAdams said in an email to the outlet.
[The Daily Caller News Foundation contributed to this report.]