Rep. Mike Gallagher Announces Retirement Following Mayorkas Impeachment Fail

Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher announced over the weekend that he would not be seeking re-election in 2024 after the Congressman voted against impeaching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Gallagher was one of three Republicans who voted against impeaching Mayorkas earlier last week.

The Republican, who was first elected in 2016, released a statement saying he believed politicians should not 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 previously served 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.”