Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the current president pro tempore of the Senate and a prominent Democratic leader, has announced that he'll retire in 2022, joining a growing list of Democratic retirees in the narrowly controlled House and Senate.
Leahy is currently the Senate’s most senior member, having first been elected in 1974 as a so-called Watergate Baby following the revelations surrounding the Watergate scandal under President Richard Nixon. The revelations set off a chain of Republican losses in the 1974 midterms, allowing Leahy to begin his 48 years in office.
