When Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan lost a race for U.S. Senate last year, it meant the end of his 20-year career as a congressman.
When asked in a recent interview with Spectrum News how life has been post-Congress, Ryan did not mince words.
“It’s glorious,” he said with a laugh.
December marks end of a chaotic year on Capitol Hill: A 15-round vote for House Speaker, the first-ever removal of a Speaker and multiple instances of verbal and physical altercations between members.
Ryan, who left office in January, said experiencing life out of Congress has been eye-opening.
“I got in when I was 29. I was in public office since I was 27. And now I'm 50. Like, I didn't know anything else,” he said. “And you just think that’s your whole life. And your whole identity gets wrapped up into that lifestyle, into the title, into the job, that becomes your identity. And you can't see, sometimes, past that.”
Nearly one year later, Ryan said he’s more relaxed, spending more time with family, and working several jobs in the private sector that align with the policy work he did in Congress – he’s now the Chief Global Business Development Officer for a climate impact company called Zoetic Global.
“You don't die,” Ryan chuckled. “You just leave office and there's this whole other life out there waiting.”
Many of Ryan’s former colleagues are now following him out the door.
As of December 15, 39 House members and eight senators have announced they will not seek reelection, either because they are running for another office or have decided to leave politics entirely.
Eleven of them made their announcements in November, the most in a month in over a decade.
“Many members are pretty open about the fact that they're just getting very tired of their inability to advance their agendas, the general contentiousness of the partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill,” said Alan Wiseman, the co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking.
Wiseman said the number of retirements so far in the 118th Congress is not a record, but what stands out is the fact that they are spread across the two major parties.
In the House, 25 Democrats and 14 Republicans are not seeking reelection. In the Senate, five Democrats and three Republicans are leaving.
“The fact that we're seeing lots of announced retirements on both sides of the aisle suggests that either a) neither party is that confident they're going to either gain or hold on to the majority party – I'm thinking of the House in particular, or b) just something else is driving the decisions right now,” Wiseman said.
Some lawmakers who are calling it quits blame what they see as the increasing dysfunction on Capitol Hill.
“Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken; it is hard to get anything done,” Arizona Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko, who has been in Congress since 2018, said in a statement announcing her retirement.
In an interview with Portland, Oregon, outlet Willamette Week, Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who is wrapping up a 28-year career on Capitol Hill, said, “I’m not certain that two more years in Congress in this climate is the best way to deal with things I care about.”
California Rep. Kevin McCarthy has decided to head out at the end of the year after being ousted as House Speaker in October. One of his allies, longtime North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry is leaving too.
“I’ve had a highly effective year, and what I see ahead of me is not being as effective as I’ve been over the last five years,” McHenry, who served as temporary speaker when McCarthy was removed, said in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News North Carolina anchor Tim Boyum.
“This place renews itself with elections and keeps going, and it will," he added. "But for me, my season is done and is coming to a close.”
Wiseman said data compiled by the Center for Effective Lawmaking shows more senior lawmakers are more successful at getting bills passed, so a growing number of retirements could mean Congress gets less done in the interim.
“But I think it’s fair to argue that there's still quite a bit of lawmaking that occurs in Congress,” he said. “It just, you know, for good or ill doesn't really make the headlines in the same way that these contentious partisan battles do.”
As Ryan watches from the outside now, he said he’s in touch with former colleagues still in office who are questioning whether it’s worth it to stay.
When asked if Ryan misses Congress at all, he has a simple reply: "I don't."
“I miss my friends in Congress," he said. "I had a lot of really good buddies. And we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs along the way, while we were doing our work. I miss them. But I don't miss it.”