Another House Republican goes running for the exits

| 10:30 am EST November 22, 2023
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In any group of 435 people, you’re going to see a handful of them bail each term for incidental or personal reasons. But when it comes to the House of Representatives, House Republicans are now announcing their 2024 retirements on a level that’s reaching a clear trend.

Yet another House Republican announced a 2024 run for the exits on Tuesday when Rep. Bill Johnson announced that he’s taking a leadership position at Youngstown State University. We can have a whole other conversation about the extreme inappropriateness of a public university hiring a House Republican in a leadership position. But the point is that Johnson is the latest House Republican in a safe seat who’s decided to bail out in 2024.

Bill Johnson would have been reelected if he’d run. So would Kay Granger and most of the other House Republicans who have recently announced that they’re “retiring.” It makes you wonder if they’ve already given up any hope of retaining the House majority after 2024, and don’t want to bother sticking around in minority positions on House committees.