A record total of 36 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives are not seeking re-election in November, as well as 21 Democratic members, with a combined average tenure of 11 years or slightly more than five two-year terms.

Among the Republicans, 16 are running for Senate, governor or attorney general positions, while eight House Democrats are leaving the lower chamber of Congress to seek a Senate or gubernatorial victory back home. The previous record number of Members opting not to seek re-election came in 2018 when 50 left the campaign trail or sought a different office, according to Ballotpedia.com.

Interestingly, while Republicans are stereotypically viewed as the party favored by older voters and Democrats are the “party of the Young,” calculations by The Washington Stand show the average tenure of the 36 departing GOP House members is nine years, while the average for the 21 Democrats leaving the House is 14 years.

Three of the retiring Democrats have been in Congress since the Reagan-Clinton era, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California with 40 years, former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland with 46 years, and Danny Davis of Illinois with 30 years. The longest serving GOP House member not seeking re-election in November is Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri with 25 years.

The lengthy average tenure of the 2026 retirees contrasts strongly with the same datapoint for members of the House and the Senate prior to 1867, according to congress.gov. “During the 19th century (seventh through the 56th Congresses), the average service of Representatives remained relatively steady; during this time incoming Representatives averaged between 1.4 and 3.8 years of prior service.”

The government site continued, “Around the turn of the 20th century, the average began to increase, rising from just over four years at the beginning of the century, to approximately nine years in each of the three most recent prior Congresses. At the start of the 119th Congress, the average years of prior service for Representatives was 8.6 years.”

Senators began serving longer tenures before members of the House, according to congress.gov. “Beginning in the 1880s, the average began to rise steadily, predating the similar rise in the House by about 20 years. After falling dramatically for a short time in the 1910s, the average years of prior service in the Senate began to rise steadily again, tracking the rise in average years of service among Representatives. At the start of the 119th Congress, incoming Senators averaged 11.2 years of prior Senate service.”

The current longest-serving member of Congress is Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who has served for 44 of his 92 years. The longest-ever serving Senator was Robert Byrd of West Virginia with almost 52 years. The representative with the most years in the Capitol was Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) with 59 years. Voters in his Michigan district elected his wife, Debbie Dingell, as his successor, and she is currently serving her 10th term.

From the Founding era to the Civil War, the vast majority of members viewed public service as a temporary obligation and privilege, thus serving one or two terms was the cultural and political standard. But with the growth of the federal government sparked by the Civil War and hastened during the Progressive Era of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the prospect of a career or long tenure in elected office became steadily much more attractive.

“From Congress’s early years and throughout the 19th century, it was not uncommon for 40% or more of the House to be made up of Members with no prior experience in the chamber; in nine different Congresses during the century, Representatives with no previous House experience made up half of the chamber or more,” congress.gov reported.

When the New Deal launched what has since become the present federal behemoth, along with the growth of mass media, the self-advantaging administrative measures members adopted over the years steadily resulted in an “incumbent advantage.” The advantage consists of greater media access and prominence, skyrocketing campaign contributions due to the proliferation of federal regulators and regulated sectors of the economy, the expansion of congressional staffs to manage and expand constituent contacts and services, and the exploding costs of mounting a serious campaign challenge.

“The financial investment for a congressional campaign varies significantly by office. Winning U.S. House of Representatives campaigns in recent cycles typically spent between $2 million and $3 million. Senate campaigns are considerably more expensive, with winning candidates often spending between $15 million and $30 million. Actual costs can fluctuate widely based on various factors,” explains the Legal Clarity Team.

The result is seen in the fact that 95% of all congressional incumbents seeking re-election in 2024 were successful, compared to 94% in 2022, 93% in 2020, and 92% in 2018.

The growth in a high percentage of incumbents being re-elected — no matter how they voted on key issues — corresponds with the long-running decline in congressional popularity among voters. As of March 27, the public approval rating of Congress stood at 25% positive and 60% negative, as calculated by Ballotpedia using a large selection of credible national pollsters.

According to Gallup, the approval rating in 2013 was the lowest on record at 9%, while in 1979 at the end of President Jimmy Carter’s tenure, the approval rating was 19%. The highest approval rating for Congress came in October 2001 at 85% in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and the nation’s capital.