The third-longest serving member of Congress will retire at the end of his term.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, 86, first came to the House in 1981 in a special election, representing portions of Maryland, The Associated Press reported.
He was the House majority leader twice — in 2006 and 2019.
Hoyer was, as the AP described, a partner and sometimes rival to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He also worked closely with Rep. James Clyburn from South Carolina.
The representative told The Washington Post that he and his family made the decision to step down over the holidays.
“I did not want to be one of those members who clearly stayed, outstayed his or her ability to do the job,” he told the newspaper.
WTOP noted that Hoyer suffered a stroke in 2024.
It should not have come as a surprise as Pelosi announced she was not seeking reelection and after the former House Speaker, Hoyer and Clyburn all stepped down from their leadership roles in 2023, CNN reported.
He has been on the Appropriations Committee, funneling money into his district, but the Post said the last few years have been “partisan gridlock.”
Hoyer said that when his constituents ask him why Washington is dysfunctional, he actually puts the blame back on the voters themselves for why things don’t get done in the capital.
“As long as the people of America elect angry, confrontational people, don’t be surprised that democracy works and you get an angry, confrontational Congress,” Hoyer told the Post.
But he has tried to work as what the Post called “a cooling agent when partisan temperatures ran hot.”
Hoyer got his start in Washington as an undergrad at the University of Maryland, attending a rally for then-Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1960. He went on to work at the Central Intelligence Agency as a file clerk before becoming part of the staff of Rep. Daniel Brewster. When Brewster went to the Senate, Hoyer went with him in 1963.
At the age of 27, he won a seat in the Maryland Senate in 1967, becoming the president of the state’s Senate at 35.
When a congresswoman had a heart attack and fell into a coma, Hoyer ran for her seat in 1981 and won to represent the 5th district of Maryland. Throughout his lifetime in Congress, he introduced or supported landmark legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Help America Vote Act.
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