McCarthy calls Greene’s retirement a ‘canary in coal mine’ warning

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s decision to leave congress early next year should serve as a warning to her colleagues.

“It’s almost like the canary in the coal mine,” the former Republican House speaker said in an interview on Fox News’ “Jesse Waters Prime Time.” “And this is something within Congress, they better wake up, because they’re going to put a lot of people into retirement, and they need to focus.”

Greene, a three-term representative from a solidly red district in northwest Georgia, a prominent MAGA supporter and a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, announced Friday night that she would step down from the House of Representatives.

Her stunning news came amid a public spat between Greene and Trump on a number of key issues, and in her statement and video announcing her decision, she delivered a sweeping indictment of the president and her party.

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Greene is one of about 40 current House members who will either leave before the end of their current two-year term, or who have said they will not seek re-election in next year’s midterm elections.

The surge in retirement rates could impact next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans aim to protect their fragile majority in the House of Representatives.

“We are above average,” said David Wasserman, a senior editor and election analyst at the nonpartisan magazine The Cook Report, referring to the pace of the election. Retirement announcements at home So far this cycle.

We still have five weeks to go until the calendar reaches 2026.

Waves of retirement announcements usually come in the last month or two, amid the holiday season, in the year before congressional elections.

The party’s distribution among retirees so far: 16 Democrats and 22 Republicans.

The handful of Democrats headed for the exits are in their 70s and 80s and retiring after long terms in the House. The most prominent of them is former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who is 85 years old.

Marjorie Taylor Greene announces her resignation from Congress after President Trump withdrew his endorsement

But in a continuing indication that the bitter partisanship is in the house It has made the lower house of Congress far from a pleasant working environment, as most of the members who stand to be up for re-election are much younger.

Rep. Jody Arrington speaks at a news conference after the House narrowly passed a bill to restore President Donald Trump’s agenda at the Capitol on May 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Among those who have conceded re-election next year is Rep. Jody Arrington, R-Texas, 53, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, who shared the news of his retirement. First with Fox News Digital.

“I firmly believe, as did our founders, that public service is a lifelong commitment, but public office should be a temporary period of oversight, not a career,” Arrington said.

Also on that list is moderate Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, 43.

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“After 11 years as a legislator, I am tired of the increasing incivility and downright obscenity that is now commonplace from some elements of our American society — behavior that our political leaders display all too often,” Golden wrote earlier this month in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News, in which he revealed his unexpected decision.

“I’m not afraid of losing,” Golden said. “What has become clear to me is that I now fear the prospect of winning. Simply put, what I can accomplish in this increasingly unproductive Congress pales in comparison to what I can do in that time as a husband, father, and son.”

Referring to Golden’s comments, Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska noted: “He said something I was feeling. The idea of ​​winning was not attractive this cycle. If it’s a little frustrating to win, we might as well let someone else run.”

Rep. Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, listens during his press conference about challenger Tony Vargas with Nebraska state lawmakers at his campaign office in Omaha, Nebraska, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“I think that’s where this hyperpartisan ugliness fits in,” added Bacon, who announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election in 2026. “The idea of ​​winning and going through another two years of this was not a satisfactory idea.”

Bacon has won nine closely contested primaries and general elections over the past decade in his swing district.

But the retired Air Force general and moderate Republican who represents the congressional district in Omaha, Nebraska, told Fox News Digital last week that “the fire just isn’t there” anymore.

Former Democratic Rep. Annie Koster The New Hampshire lawmaker, who retired a year ago after serving more than a dozen years in the House, said dysfunction and political tension in Congress were “definitely a factor” in her decision to leave.

“Working across the aisle has become more difficult over the course of 12 years,” Koster told Fox News Digital. “It has become more divisive, more partisan, and less cohesive.”

The Chairman of the Supreme Committee of the House of Representatives reveals that he will not seek re-election in 2026

“The big factor for me was that most of the moderate Republicans I’d worked with all along had left Congress. And the people who came in were more hard-right stalwarts,” Koster said.

Former Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, seen filing for re-election at the State House in Concord, New Hampshire, retired from Congress a year ago after serving more than a dozen years in the House. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Bacon, who describes himself as an old-fashioned Ronald Reagan-style Republican, joked that he was “stuck in the middle” with “crazies on the right and crazies on the left.”

The Chairman of the Supreme Committee of the House of Representatives reveals that he will not seek re-election in 2026

While some, like Bacon and Arrington, are taking a break from politics, most of those not seeking re-election to their House seats are running for statewide office next year.

“On the Republican side, there is a feeling that not much will get done other than OBBBA in the next two years of a Trump presidency,” Wasserman said.

OBBBA is short for One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a massive GOP domestic policy bill passed along party lines this summer by the Republican-controlled House and Senate that is the focus of the president’s attention. Donald TrumpAgenda for the second period.

President Donald Trump signs sweeping spending and tax legislation, known as the “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” during a picnic with military families to celebrate Independence Day, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2025. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno)

“They did the hard work and now there are opportunities to be more impactful elsewhere,” Wasserman said.

The bitter battle between Republicans and Democrats over the measure was another sign of the vicious partisan climate on Capitol Hill.

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This partisan fighting was only amplified during this fall’s showdown between Democrats and Republicans during the federal government shutdown.

Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who like Greene has seen friction with GOP leadership in the chamber, noted the announcement of Greene’s departure and said on X: “I can’t blame her for leaving this institution that has betrayed the American people.”