The 118th Congress was, by some measures, one of the least productive in recent history. Public opinion remains persistently low, and on their way out the door, lawmakers did not mince words.
It was the worst point to be in Congress in years, said Ken Buck, R-Colo., as he left in the middle of his term. Death threats and swatting take a toll on members’ families, said Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., while in the eyes of Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., money in politics has become “corrosive.”
Yet in spite of all this, some people can’t get enough — and a few even decided, after taking a hiatus from the Hill, that now was the perfect time to come back.
“You don’t really hear a lot about it in the news, but I think there is a good camaraderie among the members,” said Gil Cisneros, a California Democrat who previously served in the House from 2019 to 2021.
Cisneros is one of three “boomerang” members making a return to Congress after time away. Marlin Stutzman, a former tea partier from Indiana who served in the 2010s, and Cleo Fields, a stalwart Louisiana Democrat who did a four-year stint in the 1990s, round out the trio bringing congressional experience back to the Hill.
Already, Cisneros said he caught up with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., recalling how he once joined him on a CODEL, short for congressional delegation, to visit troops. Not too much time has passed, and plenty of his onetime colleagues are still around.
“I’m looking forward to coming back and getting reacquainted with them,” Cisneros said. “And just getting to know new members, finding good people that we’ll be able to work with and build that camaraderie, even though we may not agree on everything.”
Cisneros flipped his old seat from red to blue before narrowly losing a rematch to Republican Young Kim in 2020. It was the first elected office for the Navy veteran, who was able to draw on his own money thanks to a life-changing lottery ticket. (He and his wife won a jackpot worth $266 million in 2010.)
Now his comeback bid is complete as he returns to the House, this time to represent the 31st District. “I feel like I know the place already. I know what needs to be done,” he said.
There and back again
Not everyone is as optimistic as Cisneros about the state of affairs in the nation’s capital.
“I don’t trust Washington right now, and I know you don’t either,” said Stutzman in a YouTube short explaining his candidacy.
Stutzman, who did not respond to an interview request, isn’t coming back for the camaraderie, or at least not primarily. Campaigning on the fact that he’d “seen the underbelly of Washington, D.C.,” he positioned himself as both an insider and an outsider, with enough experience to push for conservative priorities like a crackdown at the southern border, but enough distance, too.
Winning a special election in November 2010, the Indiana Republican first came to the House to replace Mark Souder, who admitted to an affair with a staffer and resigned. Stutzman aligned himself with the tea party movement and then the budding Freedom Caucus. In 2015 he opposed John Boehner continuing as speaker.
A year later he decided to run for the Senate instead of reelection, but stumbled in the Republican primary, losing out to Todd Young. Now he reclaims the same 3rd District seat he once held, succeeding his own onetime successor (and incoming senator) Jim Banks.
Stutzman has been away for eight years, and Cisneros four. Meanwhile, Fields has been gone for almost three decades. He is returning to a place that has changed considerably, from evolving technology to tighter security and the addition of the Capitol Visitor Center.
The first time around, he was just 30 years old, making him the youngest member of the 103rd Congress. He served from 1993 to 1997, bookended by time in the state Senate.
His district map back then was the subject of court battles. As he returns to Washington, he will represent another newly redrawn majority-minority district, Louisiana’s 6th. Its fate hangs in the balance amid legal challenges, as the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments.
“We’re not here to concentrate on whether or not the district will exist tomorrow,” Fields said during orientation on the Hill in November. “Let the lawyers worry about that.”
Instead, he plans to focus on many of the same issues he worked on in the 1990s, such as education.
“I just want to go back to work. I want to go back and finish what I started,” Fields told KTAL News and other local reporters on election night.
Cisneros, too, felt he had more to offer.
Following his loss to Kim, he opted to stay in the nation’s capital, picking up work in the Biden administration as the Defense Department undersecretary for personnel and readiness.
“I spent two of the last three years at the Pentagon, but I knew that job would come to an end at some point,” Cisneros said.
So when longtime Democratic Rep. Grace Napolitano announced her plans to retire, Cisneros decided to run in California’s 31st District, citing his experience in two branches of the federal government.
“Having done both I think it’s actually going to make me a better member of Congress, just knowing what to expect, how to draft legislation and work with the administration,” Cisneros said.
This time he’ll be in the minority party, with Republicans controlling both chambers and Donald Trump in the White House. Still, he said it helps to be a not-so-new newcomer.
“When you’re a new member, it can be kind of overwhelming,” Cisneros said. “You can be kind of timid as to what you need to do. You’re trying to find your sea legs and get your grounding. But coming in this time, there’s no nervousness.”
Paul V. Fontelo contributed to this report.
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