Bustos is one of several retiring Democrats who told POLITICO that the insurrection, and the months of personal vitriol in the House that followed, propelled their decision not to seek reelection next November.

It started before the attack on the Capitol; some cross-aisle relationships began souring far earlier in Donald Trump’s term, while others started to fray amid the 2009 rise of the conservative Tea Party. But interviews with many House Democrats, from senior members to rank and file, point to Jan. 6 as the night that truly broke the House — perhaps for a generation.

And the biggest affront wasn’t the violence itself by the former president’s supporters, but the votes by more than 140 of their GOP colleagues against certifying Joe Biden as president, hours after rioters threatened them with that same goal. Those votes severely damaged trust among lawmakers. Without trust, it’s become harder to get just about anything done on the House floor…

As proof of how badly the House floor environment has frayed, Democrats point to the final day of session in 2021. Conservative Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) derailed floor debate on Islamophobia legislation when he falsely accused Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the bill’s sponsor, of having ties to terrorist groups. The remarks were deemed a flagrant enough violation of decorum to be struck from the congressional record and to earn Perry a ban from speaking on the floor for the rest of the night.