It\u2019s significant to see 71 current members of Congress either chose to retire or simply not seek reelection: In the last century, only one election cycle has seen more turnover.<\/p>\n
In Texas, 12 of our 38 U.S. House members won\u2019t be coming back<\/a>, leaving many fresher-faced politicians now fighting to win those coveted seats.<\/p>\n A new Generation of Voters<\/p>\n One of the reasons for this change is the rise of a new voting bloc.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re looking at a whole generation of people coming of age that are looking for a different American dream than the one their parents are particularly their grandparents grew up with,\u201d said Nancy Sims, a political analyst at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n We saw this in the Texas party primaries in March, when some longtime office-holders were forced into runoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Others in the Texas congressional delegation saw the writing on the wall far earlier. Rather than risk losing their primary \u2014 or ending up in a potentially embarrassing runoff \u2014 they chose to end on a high note and retire.<\/p>\n One example comes from Austin, where retiring Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett chose not to seek a 17th term<\/a>. The decision came after last year\u2019s successful, GOP-led redistricting effort<\/a> moved the 79-year-old into a solidly blue district with party-member, 36-year-old Rep.Greg Casar.<\/p>\n A Democratic primary between the two could have been rough for Doggett, according to Josh Blank with UT Austin Texas Politics Project.<\/p>\n Manoo Sirivelu<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n KUT News<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Greg Casar speaks during a town hall at Austin Community College\u2019s Rio Grande Campus in February.<\/p>\n \u201cAs iconic of a figure in the area as he’s been, Greg Casar represents a new generation of politicians and likely would have given Lloyd Doggett a real run for his money, if not actually entered the race as the favorite,\u201d Blank told The Texas Newsroom.<\/p>\n So Doggett handed off the baton instead.<\/p>\n But other incumbents are more stubborn. Sims points to a similar situation in Houston\u2019s TX-18. Rep. Al Green, who has spent over 20 years in the U.S. House, didn\u2019t win his Democratic primary outright. Now, Green will be fighting for his political future<\/a> in a runoff against Congressman Christian Menefee in late May.<\/p>\n Menefee, who promises to \u201cbring a new fight\u201d to the nation\u2019s Capitol, is turning 38 later this month. <\/p>\n These are some of the matchups this year \u2014 in Texas and nationally \u2014 that make Nancy Sims believe voters are taking candidates youth into consideration when casting votes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that we could call it an anti-age move, rather than anti-incumbent,\u201d said Sims.<\/p>\n Voters don\u2019t deny it either.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 67 years old, but, these old folks \u2026 they stuck in these old ways,\u201d Harold Augbon II recently told Houston Public Media. \u201cAnd it ain\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf there is anything bipartisan in this election cycle, this age issue is it,\u201d said Sims. \u201cWe’re seeing it happen on both sides of the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n A move away from one-time Republican \u2018stalwarts\u2019 <\/p>\n Of course, when Texas voters say they want new leadership, age isn’t the whole story. <\/p>\n A call for a different kind of turnover was on display last month in Grapevine, Texas<\/a> during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need new blood,\u201d said J.D. Enright of Frisco at the conference. \u201cWe need Ken Paxton.\u201d<\/p>\n Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is gearing up for a tough race to hang on to his seat versus Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n Enright was referring to the looming Republican runoff for U.S. Senate<\/a> between incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Paxton, the current Texas Attorney General.<\/p>\n Age doesn\u2019t play the same in this contest: Cornyn is 74 to Paxton\u2019s 63. But the incumbent has represented Texas in the Senate since 2002 \u2014 a fact that\u2019s currently working against him with some Republican voters.<\/p>\n \u201cCornyn is part of the establishment,\u201d said CPAC attendee Nino Rata, also of Frisco. \u201cWe just need new blood.\u201d<\/p>\n To UT\u2019s Josh Blank, that \u201cnew\u201d is actually code for \u201cmore MAGA\u201d \u2014 as in, more aligned with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cCornyn is, indeed, presented by Paxton as basically as a R.I.N.O. [Republican in name only],\u201d Jeronimo Cortina, a University of Houston political analyst, told The Texas Newsroom.<\/p>\n Blank said that sentiment is part of the reason other Texas Republican \u201cstalwarts\u201d in Congress decided not to run again in 2026, including Rep. Michael McCaul and Rep. Morgan Luttrell. Had they not, they could have faced a fate like Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican incumbent who faced similar criticism for not being as aligned with Trump. In March, Crenshaw lost his party\u2019s primary<\/a>. Instead, voters in his district chose state Rep. Steve Toth, a staunch conservative backed by politicians like Sen.Ted Cruz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of this year\u2019s midterm elections, some Texas voters are hoping to see \u201cnew blood\u201d in leadership. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11346,4952,1864,5055,392,10205,3309,1967,10206,2280,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-242403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-al-green","9":"tag-christian-menefee","10":"tag-dan-patrick","11":"tag-governor","12":"tag-greg-abbott","13":"tag-greg-casar","14":"tag-john-cornyn","15":"tag-ken-paxton","16":"tag-lloyd-doggett","17":"tag-republican-party-of-texas","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-texas-headlines","20":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775761088_552_.jpeg\"\/)
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