GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher announces retirement from House: ‘Congress is no place to grow old’

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher announced Saturday that he will not seek re-election to his post in the House.

“Eight years ago, when I first ran for Congress, I promised to treat my time in office as a high-intensity deployment. 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,” Gallagher said in a statement.

“But the Framers intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives,” the congressman continued. “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.”

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Earlier this week, Gallagher was one of just three Republican House members to vote against the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, joining with all House Democrats and preventing the measure from going forward.

In his statement, Gallagher, who has represented Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District in the House since 2017, also offered his appreciation for those who supported his career over time.

“Thank you to the good people of Northeast Wisconsin for the honor of a lifetime. Four terms serving you has strengthened my conviction that America is the greatest country in the history of the world. And though my title may change, my mission will always remain the same: deter America’s enemies and defend the Constitution.”

In comments provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gallagher said he plans to leave Congress and enter the private sector to spend more time with his family.

“I really just feel like I’ve accomplished much more than I even thought I could when I set out, and I firmly don’t believe that the best use for the next chapter of my career is staying in Congress for another decade,” Gallagher told the outlet.

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“Even though my title may change, my job may change, my mission is always going to remain the same,” he added. “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.”

The announcement from Gallagher, who served as a United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, comes after a handful of other Republicans recently announced their intentions to retire from Congress.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., announced Thursday that she will not be seeking re-election to the House this year, saying in a post to social media that “the time has come to serve the people of Eastern Washington in new ways.”

Gallagher’s current term expires on Jan. 3, 2025.