Sensenbrenner out

"Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., who has served in Congress for 40 years and is the second-most senior House member, announced Wednesday that he won’t seek reelection, joining more than a dozen Republicans heading for the exits. The 76-year-old Wisconsin lawmaker becomes the highest-ranking Republican to say he would step down at the end of his term, part of a growing wave of retirements that suggest GOP pessimism about regaining the House majority in 2020. Sensenbrenner has been a mainstay on the House Judiciary Committee, where he served during President Clinton’s impeachment in January 1999 and was one of 13 House impeachment managers who tried the case in the Senate. He also served as the panel’s chairman in the past decade and has headed the Science Committee...In addition to Sensenbrenner, Rep. Bill Flores (Tex.), the former chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, also announced plans to retire at the end of his term." link

It's hard to imagine the Wisconsin delegation without Sensenbrenner after all these years. He and Flores bring the number of retiring GOP Members to 16 (versus 4 Dems). Most of those leaving on both sides are in safe seats for their respective parties, but: "Several of the Republican retirements have been in increasingly competitive districts; in three of them, GOP incumbents won reelection by fewer than five percentage points in 2018." Flores also is the fifth Texas Republican to announce retirement from the House next year.