By Mary Ellen McIntire, CQ-Roll Name
For all of the lawmakers who’ve introduced plans to retire from congressional service this yr, there’s a protracted record of former members from each events who wish to be again in Congress.
They vary from former lawmakers whose phrases ended solely a yr in the past to ex-members who’ve been out of the political highlight for greater than a decade.
Right here’s a take a look at the previous members who’ve launched comeback bids for 2026:
Senate Michigan: former Rep. Mike Rogers (R)
Rogers served 14 years within the Home, rising to chair of the Intelligence Committee earlier than leaving workplace in 2015. He returned to the political highlight final cycle, narrowly shedding a Senate bid to Democrat Elissa Slotkin. Now he’s looking for the state’s different Senate seat, which retiring Democrat Gary Peters is vacating.
Republicans say Rogers has discovered from his shedding 2024 bid and is healthier ready to win this yr. Whereas Democrats face a doubtlessly messy main for the open seat, Rogers has largely cleared the GOP discipline.
New Hampshire: former Sen. John E. Sununu (R)
Sununu is trying a Senate comeback practically 20 years after shedding a second-term bid to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, who’s retiring this yr. The Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee and different nationwide Republicans are supporting his bid, however earlier than he can focus solely on Rep. Chris Pappas, the possible Democratic nominee, Sununu should cope with a main towards one other comeback-seeking former senator.
New Hampshire: former Sen. Scott P. Brown (R)
Brown received a 2010 particular election in deep-blue Massachusetts to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy however misplaced reelection two years later to Democrat Elizabeth Warren. He then moved north to New Hampshire and unsuccessfully challenged Shaheen in 2014, falling brief by 3 factors. He served as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period and introduced his second bid for Shaheen’s seat in June.
Ohio: former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D)
Brown misplaced his bid for a fourth Senate time period in 2024 to Republican Bernie Moreno because the Buckeye State’s purple shift lastly caught up with the longtime Democratic lawmaker. However Democrats have been inspired by his resolution to launch a comeback this cycle towards GOP Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat after JD Vance grew to become vice chairman. Republicans have dominated statewide elections in Ohio in current cycles, however Brown’s entry places the Senate seat in play.
Louisiana: former Rep. John Fleming (R)
Fleming served 4 phrases within the Home earlier than an unsuccessful Senate bid in 2016. After serving within the first Trump administration, he was elected state treasurer in 2023.
Fleming is now difficult Sen. Invoice Cassidy in a crowded Republican main. He’s criticized the incumbent for his 2021 vote to convict Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial. In a change from earlier elections, Louisiana will maintain partisan primaries in 2026, with a runoff required if nobody takes greater than 50 p.c of the vote.
Florida: former Rep. Alan Grayson (D)
Grayson served two separate stints within the Home, representing two completely different Orlando-area districts. He left the Home after an unsuccessful Senate run in 2016. Since then, he has made a number of failed bids for the Home, Senate and state legislature, together with a particular election for the state Senate final yr.
The perennial candidate is now one in all a number of Democrats difficult appointed Republican Sen. Ashley Moody within the particular election to finish Marco Rubio’s unfinished time period.
Home Alabama’s 1st District: former Rep. Jerry Carl (R)
Carl was in his second time period when he misplaced a member-versus-member main to fellow Republican Rep. Barry Moore after the Supreme Courtroom ordered Alabama to attract a brand new congressional map for the 2024 elections. However Moore is now campaigning to succeed Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who’s operating for governor.
Carl faces competitors for the Republican nomination, nonetheless. State Rep. Rhett Marques, who has the backing of Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, and Air Pressure veteran Austin Sidwell are additionally set to compete within the Could main for the first District, which stretches throughout southern Alabama.
California’s thirty eighth District: former Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D)
It’s been practically 17 years since Solis, now a Los Angeles County supervisor, left the Home to turn into President Barack Obama’s first Labor secretary. She introduced in August that she would search to return to the Home if California adopted a brand new congressional map, which voters authorized in November.
Solis’ comeback bid has the help of a number of present and former members of California’s Home delegation, together with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Solis faces at the very least two different Democrats within the June all-party main for the Los Angeles-area seat: former Obama staffer TJ Adams-Falconer and Pico Rivera Metropolis Councilmember Monica Sánchez.
Florida’s nineteenth District: former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R)
Cawthorn represented a Western North Carolina seat for one time period earlier than shedding a 2022 main to fellow Republican Chuck Edwards. Cawthorn was beset by a sequence of personal-conduct scandals, and redistricting additionally compelled him to alter his plans about the place he would run for reelection.
Now, he’s operating in Florida for the deep-red Home seat being vacated by gubernatorial hopeful Byron Donalds. However Cawthorn isn’t the one snowbird politician setting sights on the coastal Southwest Florida district.
Florida’s nineteenth District: former Rep. Chris Collins (R)
Collins, who received 4 phrases representing a Western New York seat, has instructed reporters he intends to run for Florida’s nineteenth District. However the former congressman doesn’t seem to have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Fee to formally increase funds for a marketing campaign.
Collins, the primary sitting Home Republican to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, resigned in 2019 earlier than pleading responsible to insider buying and selling expenses. The next yr, he started serving a 26-month time period in federal jail however received a pardon from Trump about two months into his sentence.
Illinois’ 2nd District: former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D)
Jackson served within the Home for practically 17 years earlier than resigning in 2012 shortly earlier than he pleaded responsible to repeated private use of marketing campaign funds. He was later sentenced to 30 months in federal jail.
Along with his Home successor, Rep. Robin Kelly, now operating for Senate, Jackson launched a bid for the deep-blue Cook dinner County-anchored 2nd District. However the former appropriator faces 9 different Democrats within the March main.
Illinois’ eighth District: former Rep. Melissa Bean (D)
Bean misplaced her seat within the Chicago suburbs through the 2010 tea occasion wave after three phrases in Congress. Fifteen years later, she determined it was time to get again within the recreation.
Bean is one in all eight Democrats operating for the suburban eighth District, which Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is vacating to run for Senate. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Pelosi and the New Democrat Coalition Motion Fund have all endorsed Bean’s comeback bid.
Maryland’s sixth District: former Rep. David Trone (D)
Trone left the Home a yr in the past after spending greater than $60 million on an unsuccessful Senate bid. He introduced final month that he would search his former Home seat in suburban Washington, difficult his successor, Rep. April McClain Delaney, within the Democratic main.
Trone, a co-founder of Complete Wine & Extra, is predicted to as soon as once more make investments his fortune within the race, however McClain Delaney additionally has private wealth that she’s invested into her marketing campaign. She has received endorsements from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and different members of the state’s congressional delegation.
Missouri’s 1st District: former Rep. Cori Bush (D)
Bush waged a profitable main problem to Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay in 2020 however, 4 years later, discovered herself on the shedding aspect of an intraparty contest towards Wesley Bell.
She introduced in October that she would search to win again the St. Louis-anchored 1st District. The United Democracy Mission, an arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, focused Bush in 2024, and may very well be concerned once more on this yr’s repeat race.
New Jersey’s eleventh District: former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D)
Malinowski was elected to New Jersey’s seventh District within the 2018 “blue wave” however misplaced reelection to Republican Thomas H. Kean Jr. in 2022 after redistricting made his seat redder. He’s now operating within the April particular election to finish the unfinished time period of Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill within the neighboring eleventh District.
The Democratic main for the blue-leaning North Jersey seat has drawn a crowded discipline, together with a number of elected officers. Malinowski has the help of New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, who was additionally first elected to the Home in 2018.
Tennessee’s sixth District: former Rep. Van Hilleary (R)
Hilleary left the Home after narrowly shedding a 2002 gubernatorial race, however he returned to Capitol Hill in 2019 as chief of employees to GOP Rep. John W. Rose. With Rose operating for governor this yr, Hilleary is competing in a busy main to succeed his former boss within the Center Tennessee district.
That is the second time Hilleary has sought elected workplace since his 2002 loss. He positioned third within the Republican main for an open Senate seat in 2006.
Texas’ ninth District: former Rep. Steve Stockman (R)
Stockman served two separate one-term stints in Congress, most not too long ago departing in 2015 after an unsuccessful main problem towards Sen. John Cornyn. He was convicted in 2018 of 23 felony expenses associated to misusing charitable contributions and sentenced to 10 years in jail. Trump commuted his remaining jail sentence in December 2020.
Now, Stockman is one in all a number of Republicans operating for the Houston-area ninth District, newly redrawn to be safely purple. The main additionally consists of state Rep. Briscoe Cain; Military veteran Alex Mealer, the shedding GOP nominee for Harris County choose in 2022; and businessman Dan Mims.
Texas’ twenty third District: former Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco (R)
Canesco received election to a lone time period representing the huge border district within the 2010 tea occasion wave, when he unseated Democrat Ciro D. Rodriguez. Since shedding reelection two years later, he’s made two unsuccessful Home bids, shedding Republican primaries in 2014 and 2018.
This yr, he’s difficult Rep. Tony Gonzales in a main that additionally consists of pro-gun activist Brandon Herrera, who misplaced to the incumbent by simply 354 votes in a 2024 main runoff. Gonzales received an endorsement from Trump final month.
Texas’ thirty third District: former Rep. Colin Allred (D)
Allred left the Home in 2024 after unsuccessfully difficult Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. He then spent greater than 5 months campaigning for Senate final yr earlier than making a last-minute change to a Home race shortly earlier than Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett entered the Senate race.
Now, he’s set to face his successor, Rep. Julie Elizabeth Johnson, within the Democratic main for the redrawn thirty third District, which is centered within the Dallas-Fort Price space and consists of territory each have represented in Congress. Johnson has already received the backing of the highest three Democratic leaders within the Home.
Texas’ thirty fourth District: former Rep. Mayra Flores (R)
Since successful a June 2022 particular election to flip a Democrat-held seat in South Texas, Flores has misplaced two elections to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. She’s as soon as once more looking for to problem Gonzalez in his South Texas district that grew to become redder underneath the state’s new congressional map. However first, she should cope with a Republican main that features Military veteran Eric Flores, who has Trump’s endorsement, and businessman Scott Mandel.
Utah’s 1st District: former Rep. Ben McAdams (D)
McAdams is a centrist Democrat who flipped a battleground seat in 2018, earlier than shedding reelection to Republican Burgess Owens in 2020. Utah’s new court-ordered congressional map has supplied him a chance for a comeback this yr.
Nevertheless it’s not sure whether or not McAdams, a member of the reasonable Blue Canine Coalition whereas in workplace, will probably be a match for the closely Democratic 1st District, now anchored in deep-blue Salt Lake Metropolis. A number of different Democrats, together with state Sens. Nate Blouin and Kathleen Riebe, have additionally launched campaigns for the redrawn seat.
Virginia’s 2nd District: former Rep. Elaine Luria (D)
Luria was a part of the victorious Democratic class of 2018 that helped energy that occasion to the Home majority. 4 years later, she misplaced her bid for a 3rd time period to Republican Jen Kiggans after her Hampton Roads seat inched to the suitable in redistricting.
Since asserting in November that she would problem Kiggans in 2026, Luria has consolidated vital help from fellow Democrats and a handful of contenders have dropped out of the Democratic main. Luria may additionally profit from extra favorable district strains if Democrats are profitable of their push to redraw Virginia’s congressional map this yr.
Virginia’s fifth District: former Rep. Tom Perriello (D)
Perriello is one other Democrat who misplaced reelection in 2010 looking for a comeback this yr. A month after Virginia Democrats posted robust performances within the November off-year elections, he introduced a problem to Republican freshman John McGuire, a former state senator who defeated former Home Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good in a main in 2024.
Perriello, who received election to a single Home time period in 2008, has secured endorsements from the commonwealth’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, in addition to from former Gov. Ralph Northam, who defeated him in a 2017 gubernatorial main.
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