Mike Gallagher Won’t Seek Reelection After Refusal To Impeach Homeland Security Chief
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a key Republican Congressman who has spearheaded House pushback towards the Chinese authorities, introduced Saturday that he gained’t run for a fifth time period. The announcement comes simply days after he angered his fellow Republicans by refusing to question Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The GOP has been trying to oust Mayorkas as a option to punish the Biden administration over its dealing with of the U.S.-Mexico border. A House impeachment vote Tuesday fell only one vote quick. Gallagher was one in all three Republicans who opposed impeachment. His fellow Republicans surrounded him on the House flooring in an try to alter his thoughts, however he refused to alter his vote.
Record numbers of individuals have been arriving on the southern border as they flee international locations across the globe. Many declare asylum and find yourself in U.S. cities which might be ill-prepared to supply for them whereas they await court docket proceedings. The concern is potent line of assault for Donald Trump as he works towards defeating President Joe Biden in November’s elections.
Gallagher wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed revealed after the vote that impeachment wouldn’t cease migrants from crossing the border and would set a precedent that might be used towards future Republican administrations. But the impeachment vote’s failure was a significant setback for the GOP. Wisconsin Republicans started mulling this week whether or not Gallagher ought to face a main challenger.
Gallagher didn’t point out the impeachment vote in a press release saying his retirement, saying solely that he doesn’t wish to develop outdated in Washington.
“The Framers intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives,” Gallagher stated. “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.”
He advised the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the backlash over the impeachment vote didn’t play a task in his resolution.
“I feel, honestly, like people get it, and they can accept the fact that they don’t have to agree with you 100%,” he advised the newspaper, including later within the interview: “The news cycle is so short that I just don’t think that stuff lasts.”
Voicemails The Associated Press left at his places of work in Washington and Wisconsin on Saturday weren’t instantly returned.
Gallagher, a former Marine who grew up in Green Bay, has represented northeastern Wisconsin in Congress since 2017. He spent final 12 months main a new House committee devoted to countering China. During the committee’s first listening to, he framed the competitors between the U.S. and China as “an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.”
Tensions between the 2 international locations have been excessive for years, with each side enacting tariffs on imports throughout Trump’s time period as president. China’s opaque response to COVID-19, aggression towards Taiwan and the invention of a potential spy balloon floating throughout the U.S. final 12 months have solely intensified lawmakers’ intent to do extra to dam the Chinese authorities.
Chinese officers have lashed out on the committee, accusing its members of bias and sustaining a Cold War mentality.
Gallagher was one of many highest-profile Republicans contemplating a run for U.S. Senate this 12 months towards incumbent Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin. But he deserted the concept in June. He stated then that he needed to give attention to countering China by way of the committee and that he deliberate to run for a fifth time period within the House.
