Veteran Rep. Jim Clyburn, D.S.C., one of the longest-serving members of Congress, said Thursday that he will run for an 18th term in the House, breaking with two other former top Democratic leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, who decided to retire.
“In a few minutes, I’m going to sign the paperwork necessary to qualify for the Democratic nomination to run again,” Clyburn told a room full of supporters at an event in Columbia, South Carolina, at the state Democratic Party headquarters.
Clyburn, 85, has said in the past that he wants to help Democrats regain control of the House in November and elect the country’s first black president, one of his protégés, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Clyburn said he had a phone call Wednesday with Jeffries, who encouraged him to run again and be part of his leadership team in the new Congress.
“He was among those who asked me to stay. He didn’t know or hadn’t been informed what my decision was going to be,” Clyburn recalled. “And he expressed interest in me being part of his leadership, if he took back the House. He made me feel needed.”
Clyburn was first elected to Congress in 1992, the same year that another Southern Democrat, Bill Clinton, won the White House.
He was quickly elected co-president of his freshman class in Congress and continued to rise through the ranks. He served as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus from 1999 to 2001, then made the jump to the Democratic leadership team, as vice president and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
After Democrats took control of the House in the 2006 midterm elections, Clyburn won the election as majority leader, his third leadership position. Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; and Clyburn would hold the top three leadership positions for the next 16 years as younger, more ambitious Democrats complained about the need for generational change.
While Pelosi and Hoyer left leadership in 2022, Clyburn resigned from his leadership position two years later, paving the way for Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., to assume that role.
The South Carolina congressman has long been known as a Democratic kingmaker in the Palmetto State, and is credited with propelling former President Joe Biden’s campaign to victory in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with his endorsement.
Their world-famous annual Fish Fry is frequented each year by ambitious Democrats from across the country hoping for early access to the state’s Democratic primary voters.
Clyburn was asked Thursday how much his potential influence in the 2028 presidential primary weighed on his decision to run again.
“None of that,” the congressman responded.
He added later: “This year I’m focused on state legislative seats, I’m focused on constitutional offices, I’m focused on governorship, and once we get this behind us, I’ll start thinking about 2028, but, frankly, I’m not focused on 2028 right now.”
Clyburn said in his remarks that he would address the question he always faces: What more does he have left to do in public service.
“We exist in pursuit of a more perfect union. There is no one here today who thinks this country is perfect,” the congressman told the crowd, quoting the preamble to the US Constitution. “But I don’t think there is anyone today who believes we should give up this pursuit of perfection.”
He added: “I think I’m very well equipped and healthy enough to move into the next term, trying to do the things that are necessary” in that pursuit of perfection.
Clyburn also noted his upcoming 86th birthday, July 21, and said of his re-election plans: “If I wasn’t up to it, I wouldn’t do it.”
He is among the oldest members of Congress, but not the oldest. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, third in line to the presidency, is 92, while Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., dean of the House, is seeking re-election this fall at 88.
