The Republican exodus from the U.S. House of Representatives is continuing, with longtime Congressman Vern Buchanan of Florida announcing he will be retiring. Twenty-nine House Republicans have now exited or announced their intention to leave their positions this term already. Buchanan, who serves as the Vice Chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was first elected in 2006.

Some of the other prominent Republicans leaving the House include U.S. Reps. Chip Roy (TX), Andy Biggs (AZ), Byron Donalds (FL), Nancy Mace (SC), and Elise Stefanik (NY).

On Monday, Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman reported: “Today, we only see 18 out of 435 races as toss-ups, but Republicans would need to win two-thirds of the toss-up column to hold their House majority.”

He suggested that Democrats are “modest favorites” to regain the House majority.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s margin over House Democrats is so thin that he directed Republican lawmakers to “take vitamins” earlier this month.

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Last month, political pundits and anonymous Republican lawmakers began predicting that a large GOP exodus from the House of Representatives would come after the winter break, when lawmakers had time to spend with their families to make decisions.

Reporting that “frustrated G.O.P. members are running for the exits before things get worse,” Puck News in December suggested that up to 20 House Republicans could be announcing their retirements soon.

Opposition researcher Tyson Brody, responding to the Buchanan announcement, predicted that more GOP resignations were coming: “the ‘i’m too old to go back into the minority’ retirements are only going to pick up from here.”

Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), offered more insight.

Noting that Buchanan could ultimately have been chairman of the Ways and Means Committee had he stayed longer, Fritschner added that in his opinion, this “looks like a true ‘we are screwed’ retirement ala 2018,” when Democrats flipped over 40 House Republican seats in a “blue wave.”

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Attorney and author James D. Zirin is blasting the “new malignant normal in the administration of justice” that he says President Donald Trump has brought to America.

Zirin, a former SDNY federal prosecutor who wrote a book on Trump’s lawsuits, in an opinion piece at The Hill, walked through the past year of the president’s tenure.

Examining Trump’s “sorry record,” Zirin includes the “drip feed disclosure of Epstein files, ordered to be produced on Nov. 19,” and notes: “we are told there are 5.2 million pages to go.”

“Extrajudicial killings on the high seas,” he continues, “outsized assertions of executive power, resignations of U.S. attorneys over questionable prosecutions, threats to annex Greenland because Trump is miffed that Norway denied him the Nobel Peace Prize. And hovering over it all investigations and prosecutions of political enemies.”

Zirin pointed to a video made by six Democrats, “directly quoting the Uniform Code of Military Justice about the military’s responsibility to reject illegal orders.”

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“Their message,” he noted, “came straight out of the 1945-46 Nuremberg trials of 22 Nazi leaders accused, among other things, of ‘crimes against humanity’ where the international court ruled that the ‘I was only following orders’ defense would not wash.”

The president, Zirin wrote, “blasted the video, calling it ‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!’ He added: ‘Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.’ Imagine! Legislators who disagree with Trump executed by lethal injection.”

After detailing the efforts Trump administration officials took to respond to the video, including those from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Zirin reminded readers: “Politicized prosecutions have no place in America; yet they are too much with us. Weaponized prosecutions undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and only lend succor to the cynic. Using prosecution to silence critics is a tactic common to authoritarian regimes.”

Zirin concludes, “helicoptering over it all, we have the politicized investigation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting in Minneapolis of Renée Good, killed in her confrontation with ICE officers, which has not led to an investigation of the officer who was the shooter, but an FBI inquiry into Good’s widow.”

“Attorney General Todd Blanche said that ‘there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation’ into the ICE agent. How about the videotape evidence showing that Good was veering her car away from the ICE agent?”

Summing it up, Zirin notes that he “lived through the Watergate era,” and, apparently by comparison, that “Nixon’s shenanigans appear as normal as apple pie.”

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An Iowa state lawmaker has become the second Republican candidate seeking major office to quit their campaign on Monday. The exit comes amid a broader pattern of GOP departures, even as candidates from both parties have begun dropping out of competitive races.

“After careful consideration and discussion with my family, I have made the difficult but clear decision to suspend my campaign for Congress,” State Representative Shannon Lundgren announced.

A self-described “America First Wife, Mom and Grandma, Original Trump Supporter,” Lundgren did not mention the crisis in Minnesota. She said that the “challenges facing Iowa families are urgent, and I believe my voice and experience are most needed in the Iowa Legislature right now.”

Earlier on Monday, a leading Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, Chris Madel, ended his campaign, and did cite the Trump administration’s activities in his home state.

He pointed to the “countless United States citizens who have been detained in Minnesota due to the color of their skin,” and noted, “I personally have spoken to several law enforcement officers, some Hispanic, and some Asian who have been pulled over by ice on pretextual stops.”

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“Driving while Hispanic is not a crime,” Madel added. “Neither is driving while Asian.”

“United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear,” he also told supporters. “United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong.”

Responding to Lundgren’s announcement, political campaign strategist Jacob Perry said, “You’re going to start seeing a lot of this.”

Currently, 28 Republicans have either left Congress this term or announced their intention to not seek re-election. Twenty-three Democrats have as well.

Political strategists have largely predicted Democrats will take control of the House after the November midterm elections.

Democratic strategist and pundit James Carville, responding to the international outcry and condemnation over President Donald Trump’s failed efforts to acquire Greenland, predicted last week that he will likely lose big in the November midterm elections.

“He has to be electorally humiliated, and I think there’s a good, good chance that’s gonna happen this November,” Carville declared.

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