Rep. Cheri Bustos D-Ill., says she is retiring from Congress and won’t seek reelection in 2022.
”My North Star has always been to serve our community, drive real results and help build a better future,” she said in a video released Friday. ”As I have rounded each new decade of my career, I’ve taken time to reflect on how I can best serve. That’s how, 10 years ago, I decided to run for Congress.
“And it’s why today, I’m announcing I will not seek reelection after completing this term. It will be a new decade, and I feel it’s time for a new voice.
”As for my tenure in Congress, my mission was never defined by the people in the corridors of power in Washington, but by the people in our communities, who I’ve been lucky enough to meet along the way. The people who work hard every day and embody the very best of our country.”
The Hill noted Bustos is a former chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She helped lead the Democrats’ efforts to retake the House majority in 2018.
The outlet noted that her decision came after a trying reelection campaign in 2020. She ended up winning the race by a 4-point margin — far less than her nearly 25-point win in 2018.
”I’m proud of the progress that we’ve been able to make together,” she continued in the video. ”But our work is not done. Not just the work happening in the halls of Congress, but also in the aisles of our small town grocery stores, on our factory floors and on our family farms.”
The Hill pointed out her retirement could give Republicans another pickup opportunity in Illinois in 2022. The GOP needs to gain about a half-dozen seats in the House next year to take control.
Bustos told HuffPost that there was no one issue that convinced her to retire.
She said the birth of her second grandchild last month brought her entire family together for the first time in a while, which really affected her, she said. When they gathered she sat down with her three sons and husband to talk about her future.
Sometimes being apart so much ”can be harder on families than on members,” Bustos said, citing missed baseball games and dinners cut short because of her congressional work.
The outlet noted that when she headed up the DCCC, Bustos had helped recruit new candidates and flip some Republican seats to Democrat seats in the 2016 election cycle. In the 2018 cycle, she oversaw the DCCC’s efforts to boost Democrats in the Midwest.
Source: Newmax
