Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) announced Saturday that he won’t seek re-election in 2024 just days after the Republican Congressman cast a crucial vote against impeaching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The 39-year-old Gallagher, viewed as a rising star in the GOP, was one of three Republicans to vote against impeaching Mayorkas, which helped defeat the effort that Republican leaders have promised to accomplish. Gallagher, first elected in 2016, released a statement on Saturday, saying he believes the nation’s founders didn’t intend for lawmakers to make a career out of politics.
“Eight years ago, I promised to treat my time in office as a high-intensity deployment,” said Gallagher, who served for seven years as a U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer. “Through my bipartisan work on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, chairing the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and chairing the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, we’ve accomplished more on this deployment than I could have ever imagined.”
“But the Framers intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives,” he added. “Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career and, trust me, Congress is no place to grow old. And so, with a heavy heart, I have decided not to run for re-election.”
A statement from Congressman Gallagher. pic.twitter.com/93xhZIyVRb
— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) February 10, 2024
Gallagher made a name for himself sounding alarm bells on the Chinese Communist Party and how the Chinese-owned TikTok is harming American youth. He has also warned of major American companies such as Disney, Ford, and Apple being exposed to Chinese influence.
Earlier this week, Gallagher joined Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and Tom McClintock (R-CA), along with all voting Democrats, to defeat a resolution that could have made Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since 1876. Gallagher argued that impeaching Mayorkas would set “a dangerous new precedent on impeachment that will be used against future Republican administrations.”
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Multiple Republicans have announced their retirement from Congress in recent weeks, including Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Greg Pence (R-IN), Larry Bucshon (R-IN), and Doug Lamborn (R-CO). The GOP is looking to retain its slim majority in the House and overtake Democrats in the Senate in the 2024 election.