The rumors were true: California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, ousted earlier this year as House Speaker, will resign from Congress at the end of the year. He wrote his resignation in a column for the Wall Street Journal, but his decision has been rumored since the end of November.
McCarthy has been in the House for nine terms, finally reaching the top and winning the speaker’s gavel, but unable to hold onto it after conservatives in the House combined with Democrats to unseat him after just nine months. Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska joined every other Democrat and voted to unseat him.
“I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways. I know my work is only getting started,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”
McCarthy, who was an owner of a sandwich shop in Bakersfield, Calif. before being elected to the House in 2006, is known as one of the Republican Party’s most successful fundraisers.
As of Dec. 5 2023, 38 members of Congress, including seven in the Senate and 31 in the U.S. House have announced they will not seek re-election in 2024. In the House 20 Democrats and 11 Republicans (including McCarthy) will not be running for reelection next year.
