Republican Gallagher, who voted against impeaching Mayorkas, to leave Congress

Rep. Mike Gallagher, one of the three Republicans who voted against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week, announced he won’t seek reelection this year.

Mr. Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican, said on X Saturday that he intends for his eight-year tenure in Congress to be a “high-intensity deployment,” similar to his career in the  Marine Corps. 

“Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career and, trust me, Congress is no place to grow old,” Mr. Gallagher said. “And so, with a heavy heart, I have decided not to run for reelection.”

The 39-year-old lawmaker was considered a rising star in the Republican Party, building a brand as a top national security and foreign policy hawk. Last year, he was tapped to chair the high-profile Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr. Gallagher told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he plans to leave Congress to spend more time with his family and begin a private sector career, where he hopes to continue the national security and foreign policy work he began in Washington.

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

Mr. Gallagher’s exit comes after he and two other House Republicans voted against impeaching Mr. Mayorkas. The lawmaker argued that ousting the embattled Biden administration official could “further pry open the Pandora’s box of impeachment” and could prove costly for Republicans in the future.

His decision to torpedo the impeachment effort was met with harsh criticism from conservatives, with some, like Trump ally Alex Bruesewitz, weighing a primary challenge against the lawmaker. Now, Republicans have months to pick a replacement for Mr. Gallagher.