Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., will not run for re-election in November, according to a Monday statement.
Perlmutter has become the latest representative to jump off the Democrats’ sinking ship.
18 House Democrats have publicly declined to run for re-election as of Tuesday, according to Ballotpedia. By contrast, only four House Republicans have committed to retiring after 2022.
Perlmutter, 68, represents the suburbs of Denver. He first won election to the House in 2006 as part of a blue wave.
He won re-election more narrowly in 2010, during a red wave. After that, he survived redistricting and won again.
However, Perlmutter has announced he is retiring amid another round of redistricting. He’s found himself in a less Democrat-friendly district, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight.
Last November, Perlmutter made the NRCC’s list of vulnerable Democrats, following the Democrats’ embarrassing string of losses in now-blue Virginia.
Perlmutter himself acknowledged the more competitive redistricting in a statement. However, he remained optimistic about the Democrats’ prospects.
“Even though the numbers are slightly tighter we will win,” he wrote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., mourned Perlmutter in a statement Monday.
“The Congress will miss Congressman Perlmutter’s passion for policymaking and commitment to compromise,” she wrote, referring to Perlmutter’s membership in the “moderate” New Democrat caucus.
After much thought and consideration, I have decided not to run for reelection. It’s been a privilege and honor of a lifetime to serve Colorado, the state I love and have always called home. pic.twitter.com/42vwPpN3cQ
— Ed Perlmutter (@Ed4Colorado) January 10, 2022
The House Democratic Caucus has been hemorrhaging members this year due to retirements. Only nine House Democrats announced retirement before the 2020 elections. Now, ahead of the midterms, that number has doubled to 18. It may even increase later in the year.
The House Democrats also dealt with 18 retirements back in 2010… and they lost 63 House seats that year.
In December, CNN ran a headline called “Democrats officially have a retirement problem.” CNN was right.
However, some House Democratic leaders are denying this issue.
“It’s pretty standard stuff,” DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney told a CNN reporter last year.
The Senate looks a little less bleak for the Democrats. Only one Senate Democrat, the 81-year-old Patrick Leahy of Vermont, has announced retirement, compared to five Senate Republicans.
Republicans need to flip only five seats in order to retake the House next year. The midterm elections will take place on Nov. 8.
The Horn editorial team