Republicans in Congress are increasingly breaking with President Donald Trump, with some reportedly heading for the exits as his unpopularity impacts the midterms. According to a Washington reporter, a "seismic number" of GOP House members could be set to leave office soon.
Leigh Ann Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent of Puck News, spoke with Vox on Thursday about the growing unrest in the GOP House caucus. According to sources, the reports of a larger and larger number of Republicans looking to forgo reelection in 2026 or resign early are real, and that "the scope could be pretty big."
"I’m hearing from Republican sources, lawmakers, aides, and people close to these people who are expecting a lot more retirement announcements in the coming weeks," Caldwell said.
Coming off bruising losses to Democrats in the recent off-year elections, Republicans in Washington are increasingly concerned that the party is set to endure major defeats in the 2026 midterms, with the very likely possibility of losing the House majority, as well as potentially the Senate. These losses have been widely interpreted as the result of voter discontent with Trump's economic agenda and his failure to keep costs down, an issue he has seemed uninterested in actually addressing.
"There are so many reasons for it, but the most immediate is the political environment," Caldwell continued. "It’s been a really tough fall for Republicans. They had completely underperformed in those November elections. There was a special election in Tennessee in a very red district that Trump won by 22 points. The Republican who won only won by nine points."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first major House GOP member to call it quits, announcing that she would leave office in January rather than finish her term. In the fallout of that news, numerous reports surfaced that similar departures were likely, as House GOP members reckoned with the likelihood of a wipeout in the midterms.
"The thing about serving in the House is you get to reevaluate your life every two years, and we’re in that season where people, Republicans especially, are deciding if it’s worth it," Caldwell explained. "And I’m told that many more Republicans are going to say that it’s not."
When pressed about the specific scope of the issue, Caldwell shared one source's estimate that close to 20 Republicans are set to retire soon, which Vox's "Today, Explained" host Astead Herndon called a "seismic number."
"It is. We’re already at 23 Republicans who have announced," Caldwell said. "So it also talks about the mood of the Congress. People are just not happy right now."