Retiring GOP Rep. Mac Thornberry

The Texodus continued on Monday when GOP Rep. Mac Thornberry announced that he would not seek re-election to represent the 13th Congressional District, a seat in the Texas Panhandle that gave Donald Trump one of his strongest results in the entire country in 2016. Thornberry is the most senior Republican in the state's 23-member GOP House delegation, as well as its sixth member who has decided to retire this year. The Lone Star State's candidate filing deadline is in early December, so we still have two more months to see if anyone else bails.

Thornberry is also the 17th Republican member of the House who has opted not to seek re-election this term, while another three (including New York’s Chris Collins) have already resigned this term; by contrast, just five House Democrats have decided to call it quits. Four of these departing House Republicans and two Democrats are leaving to run for another office.

While many of these GOP retirements have come as big surprises, Texas politicos have speculated for months that Thornberry, who was first elected in 1994, would call it a career soon. Back in November of last year, The Texas Tribune wrote that party operatives thought that Thornberry could retire, and the congressman said in September that he wasn’t sure what he’d do. Thornberry is term-limited as the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee due to party rules, so it made sense for him to depart this cycle.

This seat, which includes Amarillo in the north of the Texas Panhandle as well as Wichita Falls, backed Donald Trump by an 80-17 margin, which makes it a contender for the reddest seat in the nation (Trump scored a slightly higher vote percentage in Alabama’s 4th Congressional District, but his margin of victory over Hillary Clinton was slightly smaller there). The GOP primary will take place in March, and there would be a runoff in May if no one took a majority of the vote.

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