Longtime Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts has announced he will not seek re-election.

Congressman Barney Frank: “I don’t want to be torn between a full-fledged campaign in a district with 325,000 new people and my obligation to the existing constituents, and that’s reinforced by the fact that I would have a hard time going to 325,000 new people, some of them in areas that I’m not very familiar with, like the Blackstone Valley, and say, 'By the way, I would like to be your congressman for two years,' because it was always clear that I would be retiring after the next term.”

Barney Frank is the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. While serving as the chair of the committee, he successfully won passage of the Dodd-Frank Act that introduced new financial regulations on Wall Street. Frank has represented Massachusetts’ 4th congressional district for 30 years. In 1987, Frank came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily.