On Monday morning, Democratic Rep Ed Perlmutter of Colorado announced he would not seek reelection. The retirement would not usually warrant much fanfare if not for the fact that he is now the 26th Democrat in the House to announce he will not seek re-election. It signals bad news for the party.

Some Democrats are leaving because they are seeking higher office, as is the the case with Reps Tim Ryan of Ohio and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, who are running for Senate. Reps Tom Suozzi of New York and Charlie Crist of Florida are running for governor in their states, while Anthony Brown of Maryland is running for Attorney General. Meanwhile Karen Bass is running for mayor of Los Angeles.

Other retirements are a product of the fact that Democratic leadership is largely older. Peter DeFazio, House Transportation Committee chairman, is 74. Bobby Rush of Illinois, a former Black Panther, is 75, and has had cancer. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas is 86 and chairwoman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

But another reason for the Democratic exodus is that many of them see a red wave coming in this year’s midterms – and the swing-district Democrats don’t want to get washed away. Or they are in safe seats and simply don’t want to go back into being in the minority.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/one-sign-gop-blowout-coming-231706971.html