U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher is not seeking reelection, Wisconsin Right Now has learned.
Gallagher shared the news with four Wisconsin GOP county party chairs at a meeting today on his Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment vote. That’s according to Door County Chair Stephanie Soucek, who is attending the meeting and confirmed the information with WRN.
Gallagher told the county party chairs on February 10 that he will NOT be changing his “no” vote in the Mayorkas impeachment.
Gallagher then announced the news on X, confirming he is not running again.
A statement from Congressman Gallagher. pic.twitter.com/93xhZIyVRb
— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) February 10, 2024
Soucek previously told WRN that the chairs were hoping to convince Gallagher into switching his vote from no to a yes vote to impeach Mayorkas when a re-vote is held on Tuesday.
Gallagher’s vote with two other Republicans helped sink the House GOP’s attempt to impeach Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary. House leaders want a re-vote. Gallagher’s no vote so enraged fellow Republicans that three county chairs boycotted today’s meeting with him and one, the chair of Oconto County’s GOP, said he wanted another Republican to primary Gallagher, condemning him for voting against impeachment. Today’s meeting is an attempt by four other county GOP chairs to get Gallagher to change his mind. Read more about the meeting here.
The news that Gallagher had informed county chairs that he isn’t running again came minutes after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story saying that Gallagher is not seeking re-election in November.
“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 said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.
The Journal Sentinel reported that Gallagher, 39, who has served in Congress since 2017, will step down when his current term ends, not seeking reelection this November. He wants to spend more time with his family, the newspaper reported.
“Even though my title may change, my job may change, my mission is always going to remain the same,” he said to the newspaper. “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.”
According to Gallagher’s Congressional biography:
Congressman Mike Gallagher has represented Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. Mike was born and raised in Green Bay, where he now lives with his wife Anne and daughters, Grace and Rose.
Mike served for seven years on active duty in the United States Marine Corps, including two deployments to Iraq. Mike also served as the lead Republican staffer for the Middle East and Counterterrorism on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and worked in the private sector at an energy and supply chain management company in Green Bay.
Mike earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University, a second in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and a PhD in International Relations from Georgetown.
In the 118th Congress, Representative Gallagher serves as Chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, as Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, and on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. From 2019-2021 he served as Co-Chairman of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
