Longtime NJ Dem Rep. Albio Sires Will Not Seek Reelection in 2022

New Jersey Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) will not seek reelection in 2022 and will retire after his current term in the House is complete, becoming the twenty-first Democrat to announce an exit from the House of Representatives, according to the New Jersey Globe.

The 70-year-old retiree is said to be making a formal announcement before the end of the year but confirmed on Sunday night to the New Jersey Globe he will not seek reelection. Sires’ retirement comes as the state’s Legislative Redistricting Commission considers new maps, but the open seat would reportedly not affect the maps.

Before becoming a member of Congress in 2006, Sires switched his party affiliation three times. He started as a Democrat and switched to the Republican party in 1985 before he initially ran for Congress in 1986. In 1994, he left the Republican party to be a registered independent, then rejoined the Democrat party in 1998. 

While the Democrat’s district is solid blue, having received 74 percent of the vote in 2020 and voting for President Joe Biden with roughly the same margin — 73 percent to 26 percent — Sires’ retirement does not help House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) chances in the midterm elections.

Losing Sires, a close confidant to Pelosi who voted with her 100 percent of the time to help pass partisan agenda items, casts more doubt on her ability to maintain the majority in a newly elected congress.

Some of those partisan votes include the $1.2 trillion, 2,702-page so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill earlier this year — which Biden already signed into law — and the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB) — also known as the Democrats’ reconciliation infrastructure bill.

However, while the BBB was considered to be the “marquee legislation” to Biden’s legislation agenda and would ultimately increase taxes on the middle class, expand and prolong the effects of inflation, and add hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. deficit, it was effectively killed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). The senator on Fox News Sunday this past weekend said, “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation … I can’t get there.”

Sires becomes the twenty-first Democrat to announce retirement, as other older or more vulnerable Democrats have also announced they would leave their current seats. He is only the thirteenth Democrat to announce actual retirement from the public eye — including three committee chairs — while eight more Democrats announced they would run for a different office, either in a local or state election.

Breitbart News has extensively reported on Pelosi’s majority crumbling in the past and the Democrats’ struggles to keep members in the House and find new candidates to run for office. There have also been rumors of more Democrats abandoning ship in the coming weeks and months leading up to the midterms, as more redistricting maps are accepted and deadlines to file for reelection are getting closer.

There have been reports of Pelosi herself contemplating leaving elected office, but a recent report from CNN said she is planning to file for reelection in the San Francisco-based district next year. Pelosi “isn’t ruling out the possibility of trying to stay in leadership after 2022,” one source told CNN.

Additionally, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a close confidant to Pelosi, disputed the growing reports and speculation of him retiring, calling them “crap” and committing to “absolutely” running.

“Democrats have a full-blown retirement crisis on their hands and it’s only getting worse by the day,” said Congressional Leadership Fund Communications Director Calvin Moore. “Democrats are refusing to run again because they know their record of higher crime and soaring inflation will cost them their majority.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.