U.S. House 2026 Elections

An unprecedented early wave of House retirements has grown to more than 10% of seats as Rep. Vern Buchanan announced he will not seek reelection in 2026, becoming the 28th House Republican to step down. The 20-year Florida incumbent — vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and chair of its Health Subcommittee — is expected to help shape a second GOP reconciliation package before leaving; Cook Political Report rates his southwest Florida seat as solidly Republican, so his exit is unlikely to flip the district but removes an experienced GOP tax writer as Republicans fight to hold a razor-thin majority.

Maryland Democrats are moving a new congressional map through the state House of Delegates that would give their party an edge in every district and likely erase the state’s lone Republican-held U.S. House seat, represented by Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Andy Harris. A House committee in Annapolis is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the plan, drawn by Gov. Wes Moore’s Redistricting Advisory Commission, which Harris derided as 'partisan gerrymandering' and vowed to challenge in court. Even Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson has criticized the draft, calling it 'objectively unconstitutional,' in part because it stretches Harris’s Eastern Shore district across the five‑mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge into pieces of two other counties. Moore is expected to testify before the panel, and he recently met with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries in Washington to discuss the map, underscoring that national party leaders see the seat as a target in the broader 2026 battle for House control. The Maryland fight comes amid a nationwide redistricting arms race, following GOP‑driven maps in Texas and North Carolina and Democratic efforts in California and Virginia, as both parties press every legal and procedural edge to squeeze out more favorable districts before the midterms.