Mac Thornberry's retirement leaves only one Class of 1994 Republican up for re-election in the House

The Texas Tribune report about Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) retiring mentioned he is the last Texas Republican from the 1994 election cycle that flipped Congress to the Republicans. Out of curiosity I found this Roll Call article from last October mentioning that only three 1994 Republicans would likely remain in the House in this term: Thornberry, Walter B. Jones Jr. (NC), and Steve Chabot (OH).

Since that article was published, Thornberry announced his retirement, and Jones died in February. So we'll have to see if Steve Chabot, whose district includes much of Cincinnati, will run for re-election.

Also, I looked into Thornberry's congressional district that covers far northern Texas bordering NM and OK. With an R+33 index, it's hard to believe a Democrat (Bill Sarpalius) had served in that district back in the early 1990s. It used to be a swing district that would change parties with national trends. Back in 1966, in a year where Republicans gained 47 House seats (but not enough for a majority), it elected its first Republican representative since Reconstruction, Bob Price. But after Watergate, Democrat Jack Hightower unseated Price in '74, a year when Democrats gained 49 House seats and expanded their House membership to 291. Hightower would lose his seat in 1984 to Republican Beau Boulter, owing to Ronald Reagan winning Texas in a landslide re-election. Boulter gave up his House seat in an unsuccessful Senate run against Democrat Lloyd Bentsen (who was running as VP with Michael Dukakis) where he said it was "unethical" to run on both tickets - despite Texas choosing its own George H.W. Bush for president.

But Thornberry stayed in office and won re-election by ever larger margins - even after Clinton's 1992 and 1996 elections, the 2006 Democratic return to power, both of Obama's elections, and the 2018 Blue Wave!