Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) has announced that he will not seek reelection for another term, which comes as he faces criticism for voting against impeaching Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Thank you to the good people of Northeast Wisconsin for the honor of a lifetime,” Mr. Gallagher said in a statement on X.
A former Marine, he was first elected to Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District in 2016, filling the open seat left by the retirement of Rep. Reid Ribble, who endorsed Mr. Gallagher to replace him.
At the time, Mr. Ribble praised the then-32-year-old former human intelligence and counterintelligence officer’s “political moxie,” as well as his ability to fundraise and his strong “national defense posture.”
In addition to having served seven years in the military, Mr. Gallagher was once a staffer for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, when he decided to run for office in 2016, he was working as a global market strategist at a company in Green Bay.
Widely considered a moderate in the GOP, Mr. Gallagher was at times at odds with his party colleagues.
He expressed criticism of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election and, while sheltering in his office during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, he posted a video on X calling on the former president to call off the protesters.
More recently, Mr. Gallagher drew criticism from some in the GOP camp when he became one of three Republicans who voted against impeaching Mr. Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis.
Mr. Mayorkas’s “performance has been a disgrace,” Mr. Gallagher wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published following the vote.
“But I disagree with my Republican colleagues who voted on Tuesday to impeach Mr. Mayorkas. Impeachment not only would fail to resolve Mr. Biden’s border crisis but would also set a dangerous new precedent that would be used against future Republican administrations,” he added.
His announcement marks the latest in a series of planned retirements in Congress.
‘Deter America’s Enemies’
Over the course of his eight years in Congress, Mr. Gallagher chaired both the Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, as well as the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party—the latter being one of the most high-profile committees in Congress.
“Four terms serving you has strengthened my conviction that America is the greatest country in the history of the world,” Mr. Gallagher said in his Feb. 10 statement announcing his retirement.
“And though my title may change, my mission will always remain the same: deter America’s enemies and defend the Constitution,” he added.
Mr. Gallagher told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he plans to enter the private sector, where his work will build on his congressional experience in the area of national security and defense policy.
“Even though my title may change, my job may change, my mission is always going to remain the same,” he told the outlet. “My mission is to prevent World War III.”
“I’ve dedicated myself to restoring conventional deterrence in order to prevent a war with China, and so whatever I do next will be an extension of that mission,” he added.
Mr. Gallagher said he never intended for his public service in Congress to be a long-term career.
“The Framers intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives,” he said. “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.”
While his departure doesn’t give Republicans much time to jump into the race before the Wisconsin primaries kick off, his open seat in northeastern Wisconsin is widely considered a sure bet for a fellow Republican to take his place.
From The Epoch Times
