James Clyburn

Representative James E. Clyburn, the 85-year-old Democratic power broker from South Carolina, said on Thursday that he planned to seek an 18th term, breaking with other former congressional leaders and aging lawmakers who have announced retirements and testing his party’s desire for generational change at a crossroads moment.

His decision to stay comes at a moment of peak confidence among Democrats that they are well positioned to win back control of the House in November’s midterm elections. And Mr. Clyburn had signaled an interest in witnessing the election of the first Black speaker, a milestone that Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, is on track to reach should Democrats win the majority.

Mr. Clyburn, an old-school Southern politician, served for years as the No. 3 House Democrat and the highest-ranking Black member of Congress. In 2022, alongside former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, her longtime No. 2, he stepped down from that position to make way for a new generation of party leaders.

But unlike his two peers, who have announced they will retire at the end of this term, Mr. Clyburn even then made it clear he wanted to stay on. He ran for a newly created position of assistant Democratic leader, which he held for another two years.