One of U.S. President Donald Trump’s most stalwart allies in the House of Representatives, Republican Mark Meadows, said on Thursday he will not seek re-election next year and could seek a position to work with Trump in some capacity.
“My time serving Western North Carolina in Congress will come to a close at the end of this term,” Meadows, a founding member of Republican’s conservative House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement.
He did not offer any details about his next steps but said he would continue to fight for the Republican president, who on Thursday was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House.
“My work with President Trump and his administration is only beginning,” Meadows wrote. “I’m fully committed to staying in the fight with him and his team to build on those successes and deliver on his promises for the years to come.”
He told Politico, which first reported his departure, that he did not have a specific job lined up yet with Trump and would not say whether he would serve out the remainder of his current term, which ends in January 2021.
“I plan to serve the people of western North Carolina until it’s decided that I can best serve the president and the American people in a different capacity,” he told the news outlet. “While there’s no immediate plans, there’s certainly discussions that have occurred and potentially could occur in the future.”
Meadows, whose home state of North Carolina has seen a political shakeup over redistricting, also told Politico news outlet in an interview that he was not concerned about winning re-election.
Meadow’s seat, on the other hand, didn’t change all that much. About three-fourths of the voters in his old district are also in the new North Carolina 11th and it’s still 17 points more Republican than the country as a whole, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric.
We’ve been tracking retirements over the past few months now, and although Meadows’s retirement is different than many of the retirements we’ve seen so far, one thing that is readily apparent is just how lopsided the GOP retirements are. With Meadows’s exit, roughly 10 percent of the 197 Republicans currently in the chamber are retiring and not running for something else. And since the start of December, five Republicans have announced their retirement, tying it with July for the busiest month this cycle. (By comparison, there have only been six “pure” retirements among the 233 Democrats in the House.)1
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38221 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
Getting back to Meadows...given how the Big Guy treats the people who work for/with him (hello, Jeff Sessions)....why would anyone in his right mind do it?
Oh, wait....never mind.....
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38221 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010