WASHINGTON — In a social media post just after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, North Carolina Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards ended his reelection campaign. The two-term Republican had faced growing pressure to bow out after the bipartisan House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured for acting inappropriately toward two young female staffers.

Edwards disputed the recommendation he be censured but said he decided to drop his bid for reelection after “much prayer and reflection” and that he would complete his current term.

Edwards is among nine House members — seven Republicans and two Democrats — who have been investigated by the ethics panel so far this year. Three have resigned from office.

“I think it’s really up to the voters what they’re willing to put up with,” Peter Loge, a former chief of staff to a House member who now teaches at George Washington University told Spectrum News.

He said lawmakers accused of wrongdoing, who resign or end their reelection campaigns, usually do so because of political considerations, especially in an election year like this one.

“The job of the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader is to get people in their party elected,” he said.

The Edwards scandal is not the only ethics problem threatening the thin majority of House Republicans. The ex-wife of Ohio Congressman Max Miller has accused him of abusing her and their young daughter.

Miller’s ex-wife is the daughter of Ohio U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno.

Miller denies the allegations and says he will stay in office and on the ballot.

“We have to allow this process to play out,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Politico Tuesday night. “It’s just begun.”

Both parties each lost House members earlier this year when Texas Republican Tony Gonzales and California Democrat Eric Swalwell resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations, and Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned after being accused of misusing COVID relief funds.

“She did the right thing in stepping down,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said back in April.

Loge said Capitol Hill has long been a breeding ground for inappropriate behavior but that midterm election years, which determine control of Congress, cast a brighter spotlight on members who often fly under the radar.

“So stuff you may have been able to get away with in the past, or may not have mattered in a year not like this one, suddenly matters because the political consequences are so great,” Loge said.

He said another factor in all of this is that President Donald Trump has faced multiple scandals and criminal cases and still was reelected.

He says that may lead some Congressmembers to think they can weather their own ethical storms.