It’s not a question of if more House Members will retire; it’s a question of when and where.

On Wednesday, Rep. Bill Flores became the fifth Texas Republican to announce he will not seek reelection or another office in 2020. Of the 13 members retiring in 2020, 11 are Republicans and two are Democrats. And more exits are likely to come, considering that, on average, 23 members have retired each election cycle, going back to the 1970s.

It isn’t necessarily something in the water in the Lone Star State that’s inspiring the exodus. Texas has an early candidate filing deadline (Dec. 9) and early primaries (March 3), so members can’t wait until the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to contemplate their political futures. And they want to give future candidates enough time to build their campaigns to give the party the best chance to hold their seats.

The sheer number of retirements isn’t as important as the partisanship of the districts being left behind.

Republicans shouldn’t have a problem holding Flores’ 17th District seat. President Donald Trump carried the district that covers College Station, Waco and suburban Austin 56 percent to 39 percent in 2016, according to Daily Kos Elections. Of course, the open-seat race is just getting started, so we don’t know who will run and what the national political environment will be next year.