Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) announced yesterday that she would not run for re-election in 2020. She was first elected to Congress in 1988 and represents New York’s 17th District.
Lowey received 88% of the vote over a Reform Party candidate in winning re-election in 2018. She ran unopposed in both the Democratic primary and general election in 2016. That year, Hillary Clinton (D) won the district with 58.6% of the vote. The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for the district was D+7, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district’s results were 7 percentage points more Democratic than the national average.
Lowey becomes the 23rd House member—and sixth Democrat—to announce they would not run for re-election in 2020. Four U.S. Senators—three Republicans and one Democrat—have also announced they would not seek re-election. Fifty-five members of Congress did not run for re-election in 2018. The current partisan composition of the House is 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans, one independent, and two vacancies.
