ANOTHER Democrat announces she won't run for re-election in 2022: Jackie Speier says it's 'time to become more than a weekend wife' and leaves another door open for Republicans
- Speier was once a legislative aide to Rep. Leo Ryan, and was shot five times during an ambush in Jonestown, Guyana where the lawmaker was killed
- She's held elected office since 1980 and won re-election with 80% in 2020
- Her relatively early departure is bad sign for Congressional Democrats in 2022
- Joe Biden's party only holds a 10-seat majority in the House and 50-50 in Senate
- The California Democrat is the 14th member of her party leaving the House
Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier of California announced on Tuesday that she won't be defending her seat in 2022, potentially leaving another door wide open for Republicans looking to flip Congress next year.
Speier, who's represented the 14th District covering San Mateo County and part of San Francisco since 2013, revealed her decision in a video message posted on Twitter just a day after longtime Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy announced his retirement.
'Today, I'm announcing that I will not be a candidate for re-election to Congress in 2022,' Speier, 71, said. 'It's time for me to come home, time for me to be more than a weekend wife, mother and friend.'
She ended her message with a plea to Americans to 'protect' democracy - as her party grapples with the possibility of losing its razor-thin majority in the House and Senate.
'I have never forgotten that I have been given the opportunity to serve because of you. The office holds the power, not me,' Speier said.
'As I leave I want to convey my deepest appreciation to you, and urge you to protect our precious democracy, it is fragile and vulnerable.'
Her decision makes Speier the ninth House Democrat to retire in 2022, along with six others leaving their seats to run for another office.
Speier, 71, announced her decision in a video message posted on Twitter
Unlike some other outgoing lawmakers, however, Speier's seat was relatively safe. In 2020 she beat back a Republican challenger with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
But with a 10-person majority, her early retirement announcement puts Democrats' tenuous hold of the House at risk.
So far, 81-year-old Leahy is the only Senate Democrat retiring. The upper chamber is split 50-50, meaning the pressure is on Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats to keep it from flipping.
'It is time to pass the torch to the next Vermonter, who'll carry on this work for our great state. It's time to come home,' Leahy said during a press conference on Monday.
Her departure marks 14 Democrats leaving the House in 2022, giving Republicans an opportunity to take back the majority they lost in 2018 (pictured: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy)
In her own outgoing message, Speier hinted that her career in elected public service, which began in 1980, may not be over.
'There's still another year of representing your interests in Congress, and I intent do do my best to support you in every way. There's also another chapter or two in my book of life, and I intend to contribute to you, the communities I love, on the peninsula and in San Francisco and the country,' she said.
Speier has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2008, when she first represented California's 12th District.
Before that the lawmaker began her political career on the San Mateo Board of Supervisors by defeating a 20-year incumbent.
Speier made her announcement 43 years to the week she was shot five times during an ambush when she accompanied Rep. Leo Ryan on a mission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in Jonestown (pictured: Speier, an aide to Ryan, being taken from a plane at Georgetown on November 19, 1978, after its arrival from Jonestown where Speier was shot five times and Ryan and four others were ambushed and killed by members of the People's Temple)
Her journey to the House then included the California State Assembly and later the State Senate and an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor.
In 1978 she worked as an aide for Democrat Rep. Leo Ryan, and accompanied him on the infamous Jonestown fact finding mission to investigate alleged human rights abuses by People's Temple founder Jim Jones.
On that trip Ryan was shot and killed by members of the People's Temple while boarding a plane to leave the Guyanese commune.
Speier was shot five times in the ambush - which she recalled in her Tuesday video.
'Forty-three years ago this week, I was lying on an airstrip in the jungles of Guyana with five bullet holes in my body,' Speier said.
'I vowed that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to public service. I lived, and I survived.'
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