On Monday, Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said that he would not run for reelection, joining four others. The four other Republicans that announced retirement are, Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), Richard Shelby (Alabama), Rob Portman (Ohio), and Richard Burr (North Carolina). Adding to this, is the fact that Republicans Chuck Grassley (Iowa), and Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), have also teased retirement, but not officially announced. All these Republican senators are up for reelection in 2022, and a vacancy in the senate seats may lead to several Democratic pickups. If Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson retire, then a total of 7 republican senators will be retiring in 2022, out of which 3 of them which have seats in swing states that are likely to go to the Democrats. These states are Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin, all have which either gone for Biden in 2020 or went for Trump, for less than 5 points (While you might consider Iowa and Ohio swing states, they went for Trump by more than 5 points, and the occupying senators have won races handily in the state). An interesting note is that in 2016 Roy Blunt won his senate seat by less than 3 points, though due to Josh Hawley winning a Missouri senate seat in 2018 by more than 5 points, the chances of it going Democrat is slim. In summary, it is most likely the case that these mass retirements by senate Republican’s, will make the Democrats job of winning more senate seats a bit easier.
