Yet ANOTHER Democrat says they won’t run in 2022: Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy announces she won’t seek re-election with Pelosi facing a potential midterms bloodbath
- The centrist Democrat said that she was leaving Congress to spend more time with her kids
- ‘Serving Central Florida has been the honor of my life, but it’s also been incredibly challenging for my family and me,’ she wrote on Twitter
- She said that she was ‘consistently named one of the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress’
- ‘My greatest hope for my colleagues is that they do the same – to stop the name-calling, saber-rattling and the disinformation and to listen to one another’
Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy announced Monday she will not seek reelection next year, making her the 22nd Democrat to retire.
The centrist Democrat said that she was leaving Congress to spend more time with her kids.
‘Serving Central Florida has been the honor of my life, but it’s also been incredibly challenging for my family and me,’ she wrote on Twitter.
‘My journey from fleeing a violent, communist regime to being rescued by the US navy to working in national security at the pentagon and now as the first Vietnamese-American congresswoman is a journey that could’ve only happened here in America,’ Murphy said in a video released on Twitter.
She said that she was ‘consistently named one of the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress.’
Murphy said that she was ‘consistently named one of the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress’
‘At a time when politics have become so divisive and dangerous my greatest hope for my colleagues is that they do the same – to stop the name-calling, saber-rattling and the disinformation and to listen to one another.’
A senior member of the Blue Dog Coalition, Murphy was among a small band of Democrats who threatened to vote against the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan until lawmakers knew the full price tag. Ultimately, she voted for the spending bill alongside all other Democrats except Rep. Jared Golden, Maine.
In 2016, Murphy beat out 12-term incumbent Rep. John Mica. She would have been likely to face a tough reelection battle due to redistricting if she ran again.
Hours later, The Hill reported California Democrat Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, 80, will not seek re-election in 2022. She would be the 23rd Democrat to announce retirement.
Meanwhile, Democrats’ majority in the House looks increasingly vulnerable, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can only afford to lose three seats while keeping her party in power.
A senior member of the Blue Dog Coalition, Murphy was among a small band of Democrats who threatened to vote against the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan until lawmakers knew the full price tag
Pelosi herself has reportedly signaled she will run again in 2022 and has not ruled out holding on to her leadership position, according to CNN. It would be the speaker’s 18th term and she would be 82 by election day.
At the same time 22 Democrats will retire, 11 House Republicans have so far said they will not seek reelection.
The party not in power historically has an advantage over the in-party in midterm elections, and as the president’s poll numbers fall amid a worsening pandemic and fast-rising inflation, Republicans could seize a greater advantage.
Murphy said in the video it ‘may come as a shock’ that she is retiring at her age ‘without scandal, without immediately seeking higher office, without fear of losing reelection or without some lucrative job opportunity.’
‘I never intended my time in Congress to become a career,’ she said.
But Murphy was once widely believed to be eyeing a race for the Senate to unseat Marco Rubio in 2022. Now, she could turn her sights to the 2024 race for the upper chamber, sources close to the congresswoman told Politico.