Texas congressman Mac Thornberry, who was first elected in the 1994 GOP wave and is now the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, announced this morning that he will retire at the end of this term.

I took a look at the various factors driving the general wave of House GOP retirements, and the Texodus in particular, here.


You can be sure Thornberry’s decision had nothing to do with fear of winning reelection: He won his last race by 65 percentage points (that’s not a typo).