They Left Congress. Now They Want Back In.

As numerous people are retiring from Congress this election cycle, former members are aiming to make a comeback.

At least a dozen former members of Congress, most of them Democrats, have already announced runs for 2026, from people who lost their seats last cycle to those who left over a decade ago, like former Rep. Tom Perriello and former Sen. Scott Brown. They include people who are trying to come back despite controversy and those facing contentious primaries.

What they all have in common: While a record number of lawmakers head for the exits, these candidates want to be in Washington.

Former Rep. Colin Allred, who is running in Texas’ 33rd Congressional District, told NOTUS in an interview that he’s not discouraged by the retirements.

“I ran initially in 2018 because I thought that Donald Trump was a danger to the country and that the community that I was born and raised in needed to have a strong voice for it, and that’s really the same motivation here,” he said. “And unfortunately, we’re still in the same place where Donald Trump is still a clear and present danger to the folks that I represent.”

Allred said he’s “been through it all” in Congress, including the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and going weeks without having a speaker in 2023.

Allred left the House in January 2025 after a failed run for U.S. Senate. He initially launched a bid for Senate again this year, but switched to the House race after Rep. Jasmine Crockett launched her bid against Sen. John Cornyn. Now, Allred is challenging an incumbent from his own party, Rep. Julie Johnson.

Allred’s decision to run in the 33rd Congressional District was partially motivated by partisan redistricting. Before, Allred represented the 32nd Congressional District, which overlaps with the new 33rd District.

“This gerrymandering has really cut deeply into our overall voices and the experience that we’re going to be sending in terms of our delegation. And I think we need to have our best players on the field in the seats that we have left, and we need to have strong voices in those seats,” Allred said.

Thus far, more former Democratic Congress members are aiming for a return compared to their Republican counterparts.

In New Jersey, former Rep. Tom Malinowski is aiming to represent the 11th Congressional District. He lost his reelection bid in 2022 to Republican Tom Kean Jr. in the 7th district, but has ambitions to come back to Congress.

“We’re facing a more acute version of the situation the country faced in 2018 when I and a number of other returning candidates across the country ran for the first time, and the solution to that problem is also the same. It’s taking back the House of Representatives and using it to restore constitutional checks on a president who’s abusing his power,” Malinowski said.

Malinowski said he’s not daunted by the record retirements.

“Some of them are Republicans who wanted to be part of the political party that is now a cult, others are Republicans who expect Democrats to win the majority and don’t want to hang around for this. None of those reasons would be relevant to me,” he said.

Things could be looking up for Democrats. A November 2025 PBS News/NPR/Marist poll shows that 55% of voters would vote Democrat in the 2026 midterms if the elections were held that day. This comes after big wins for the Democratic party with the 2025 elections.

While away from Congress, Malinowski kept himself occupied by teaching at a university, serving on nonprofit boards and being a chairman of a county Democratic Party. But he said he found Congress to be very fulfilling and hopes to work on health care, repealing tariffs and restoring “Congress’ constitutional role as the guardian of our Constitution and protect our people.”

“For all the dysfunctions in our politics, I still think there’s something very magical about democracy and about representing people who sent you to Congress, and about having a job that’s defined in our Constitution,” he said.

Malinowski lost to Kean in 2022, with Kean having a 2.8 percentage-point lead. This was after the district had been redrawn to be Republican-leaning.

Former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria also lost her race in 2022, with Republican Jen Kiggans winning with a 15.4 percentage-point lead. This loss also came after the district was redrawn to favor Republicans.

Luria represented Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District from 2019 to2023. Luria said she has served the country and Virginia since she was 17 — including being in the Navy and serving four years in Congress.

“Service to our country means putting the interests of the people above all else–including political parties,” Luria said in a statement to NOTUS. “That’s why I cannot sit back and watch as Republicans in Congress create chaos and fail to address the rising cost of living and the issues that matter to Coastal Virginians.”

A smaller number of former Republican lawmakers are running this cycle, including former Rep. Van Hilleary from Tennessee. Hilleary did not respond to a request for comment, but previously said he hoped to provide backup for Trump.

“At the national level, I think our country in many ways is hanging on by its fingertips,” Hilleary, who left the House in 2003, said this July after announcing his campaign. “Our nation has been on a slow decline for years and that decline has been gaining steam during the Biden years.”

Brown, a former Massachusetts senator now running for Senate from New Hampshire, said in his campaign launch video that he’s concerned where the country is heading. His campaign did not respond to a request for additional comment on his bid.

“We’ve been blessed with two great governors — Chris Sununu and Kelly Ayotte — but in Washington, we haven’t been represented by the right people,” Brown said in the video.

Former Republican Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas is reportedly aiming to make a comeback after being convicted of money laundering in 2018. Trump commuted the remainder of Stockman’s sentence in 2020. Stockman filed a statement of candidacy with the FEC but has not publicly announced a run.

On the Democratic side, former Rep. Cori Bush is launching a bid for Congress again despite facing controversy over campaign finances being spent on a former security guard whom she married. Her husband, Cortney Merritts, was charged with pandemic relief fraud.

Bush launched a run to represent Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, going against Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell, who beat her in the 2024 election.

Bush said she is running again because people in St. Louis asked her to.

“We’ve only just begun to see the devastating effects of the Trump administration’s policies on everyday people around the country, and St. Louis is one of the places that has been hit the hardest,” Bush said in a statement to NOTUS. “Now more than ever, we need a leader in this district who will fight for Medicare for All, recognizing basic utilities as a human right, and bringing federal funding here that will allow us to build affordable housing and fund afterschool programs.”

“I don’t do this work for a title,” Bush added. “Whether I’m in office or not, I won’t stop fighting for St. Louis.”