2 congressmen are running for governor in Arizona. They're part of a national trend

Two of Arizona’s congressmen are giving up their seats this year — both not running for reelection in seats they’ve held for multiple terms. And both instead running for governor.

Well, it turns out, they’re not the only ones. States Newsroom reporter Jennifer Shutt reports dozens of lawmakers are ditching Congress for gubernatorial races all over the country.

The Show spoke with her about why.

Full conversation

JENNIFER SHUTT: Some of them are a bit older, they are part of the generation that would be retired already if they were part of the traditional workforce. Others are really interested in other political office and feel like they would have a bit more authority there to institute policies that they feel are beneficial.

And, of course, being a member of Congress, you know, it does seem a bit glamorous from the outside, but there is a lot of travel. And especially when you're a newer member or even if you've been there for four or six years, sometimes you don't have a whole lot of authority on committees. And so there can begin to be other places, other types of work that seem really appealing once members of Congress sort of get the hang of how things work on Capitol Hill.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, I think that makes sense, that makes sense. So obviously we have David Schweikert and Andy Biggs, congressional representatives from Arizona — longtime ones — who are both leaving, both running for governor here in Arizona. Give us some examples of some of the other lawmakers on your list there who are, you know, examples of this trend elsewhere around the country.

JENNIFER SHUTT: Yeah, so every couple years, every election year, we do have members of Congress running for governor, so that's not necessarily new. But there is a pretty big interest this year, more than it normally would be, in members of the House and Senate who want to run their states. We've got Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville, Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Let's talk a little more, Jennifer, about the repercussions, potential repercussions of this kind of volume of turnover in Congress. Like, first of all, it's just like an institutional knowledge loss, right? Congress is complicated, just figuring out how to do it is not easy for folks, right?

JENNIFER SHUTT: Oh, of course. The practices and procedures and norms in the House and Senate are sometimes very archaic and confusing, and in addition to that, some of the experts on Congress I spoke with for this story mentioned the basics that I didn't even think about, right? Like setting up a new office and hiring staff to do constituent work is, you know, something that members who have been around a little bit longer are used to and seasoned in. But these newer members really have to figure out for the first time just how to get from their office in one of the office buildings to the floor to vote; where the lunches are held; you know, how to do all these things. And I really started thinking of it, you know, oh yeah, of course, when you start a new job there's all these basics that you have to learn before you can do the complicated work that makes anyone successful in any job.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, yeah. So what might that kind of brain drain mean for, you know, what's coming? I mean, it's a different generation, probably, of lawmakers we can expect in Congress. Is that a bad thing?

JENNIFER SHUTT: So there are pros and cons to this, right? And we've seen a lot of stories during the past several years about more senior members of Congress and some examples in those members of cognitive decline that raised a lot of alarm bells. And so there has been a lot of conversation about whether or not there should be an age limit on members of Congress, and that is a dynamic in this as well. You're seeing a lot of older members want to leave the institution before they could potentially reach that type of situation.

And then in addition to that, you get sort of those mid-career lawmakers, the ones who maybe are approaching traditional retirement age and they feel like they've accomplished a good bit and they're just sort of ready to hand off the baton to the next generation. And so there can be some pros in here to getting a younger generation, the types of experiences they have, the type of outlook they have is going to be a lot different. But sometimes when you lose that classic negotiating experience, it does take a little bit of time for those new members to get comfortable with that.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Also, what's appealing about the other side of this for many of these folks? What's appealing about being governor as opposed to what happens in Washington as a member of Congress in particular?

JENNIFER SHUTT: Right. So if you're a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, you are one of 435 members, and if you're a member of the U.S. Senate, you're one of 100. There's a lot of negotiating, a lot of compromise that has to be undertaken if you want to be successful there. You have to sort of build those relationships, not only sometimes across the aisle, but across the Rotunda as well, with members in the opposite chamber. If you want to get your bills into law, that can often be a learning curve and a very slow process in the United States Congress.

And so a lot of these members are now looking at governor and saying, "Hey, I could set my own agenda, I would be one of one, I would be leading and sort of setting the agenda for my statehouse."

Some of them would go back to their states, for example, the Alabama statehouse would potentially be very friendly to a Republican executive. Something similar in Colorado, where Bennet is running, he's a Democrat, his state legislature is likely to be friendly to his policy proposal. And that just makes things a little bit less complicated and gives them a little bit more control than they have in Congress.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So, I mean, how much of this, though, is just political, Jennifer? Like if we're looking at, you know, the writing on the wall for some of these folks in terms of just the political landscape and their reality of whether or not they'll be able to be reelected in the future, is that part of these calculations as well?

LAUREN GILGER: Oh, they're absolutely part of this calculation. Typically in a midterm election year, which is what we're heading into this November, the president's party loses seats and is likely to lose control of at least one chamber of Congress. That's most likely going to be the House of Representatives, so over there of the members who we've seen announce retirement or that they're seeking another elected office, a majority of those are Republicans.

We're seeing a similar trend in the Senate as well because they know that there is a possibility they're going to be in the minority party come January of next year. And they have a lot less power, they aren't in leadership, and so they can't set the floor agenda. And so those who feel they've accomplished something or that they could accomplish more in a different position are really looking for the exits at this point.