JUST IN: High-Ranking Democrat Announces Retirement

Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the longtime power broker who once served as ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top lieutenant, announced Thursday that he will retire from Congress at the end of his term.

Hoyer, 86, made the announcement from the House floor, drawing sustained applause as he rose to speak.

“I stand here now, after some 60 years in public service,” Hoyer said. “Mr. Speaker, I have decided not to seek another term in the People’s House. I make this decision with sadness, for I love this House, an institution the framers designed to reflect the will of the American people and to serve as the guardian of their liberty and their democracy.”

He warned that the chamber had drifted from its founding purpose.

“I am deeply concerned that this House is not living up to the founders’ goals. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to examine their consciences, renew their courage and carry out the responsibilities that the First Article of the Constitution demands,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer will leave Congress when his term ends in January 2027, marking another high-profile exit for House Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms. Pelosi, D-Calif., has also announced she will not seek re-election, leaving Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina as the only remaining member of the party’s top 2021 leadership trio who has not said he is retiring.

Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

A fixture of Democratic leadership for decades, Hoyer began his political career in the Maryland State Senate, where he served from 1966 to 1979. He later joined the state’s Board for Higher Education before winning his first congressional race in 1980.

He entered the House in 1981 and rose steadily through the ranks, serving as Democratic whip from 2003 to 2007 and as majority leader from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.

According to his biography, Hoyer is the longest-serving House member in Maryland history, with 45 years in Congress.

Looking back, he said the chamber had changed dramatically since his arrival more than four decades ago.

“The Congress I entered in 1981 was somewhat different,” Hoyer said. “Most Republicans and Democrats worked together in a collegial, productive way. The leaders of the House, Tip O’Neill and Bob Michael, fostered that environment. It was, of course, not a Congress without conflict.”

“I fear that America is heading not toward greatness, but toward smallness, pettiness, divisiveness, loneliness,” he added.

Hoyer closed his remarks by thanking his Democratic colleagues, his late wife and his children, bringing an emotional end to a speech that signaled the close of one of the longest tenures in modern House history.

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