Greg Walden, Veteran Republican Representative, Won’t Seek Re-election in 2020

WASHINGTON — Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, a senior Republican on an influential House committee, said on Monday that he would not seek re-election, joining the growing ranks of Republicans rushing for the exits as they take stock of a grim political landscape ahead of the 2020 election.

The only Republican in Oregon’s congressional delegation, Mr. Walden, elected to the House in 1998, held leadership roles there for years, and as the chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce committee helped draft and lead the failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He also served as the chairman of Republicans’ campaign arm in 2014 and 2016, leading the conference in back-to-back victories.

Mr. Walden, 62, said he had not come to his decision out of any concern for his own political survival or fatalism about his party’s chances of winning the House after Democrats swept Republicans from power last year.

In a statement, he said that he was confident he could have won re-election in 2020, but, “for me, the time has come to pursue new challenges and opportunities.”

Yet in announcing his retirement, Mr. Walden did not sound confident about his party’s chances in the 2020 contests — “a path exists for Republicans to recapture a majority in the House,” he said — and his decision to leave Congress underscored how reluctant many Republicans have grown, as the impeachment of President Trump gallops ahead, to sign up for another two years in the minority.

Weary of spending another Congress with little power in the majority-dominated House and the drama of having to answer daily for the president’s provocative comments and actions, 20 other House Republicans have announced they would not seek re-election in 2020.

Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm, called Mr. Walden a “class act and political juggernaut who will be sorely missed.” In a statement, Mr. Emmer also said that Mr. Walden had pledged to remain “heavily engaged” in ensuring his seat, a conservative stronghold in the center of the state, would stay in Republican control.

Mr. Walden is now the fourth lawmaker who serves as the top Republican on a prominent House committee to announce his retirement this year. The others are Representatives Mac Thornberry of Texas, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee; Rob Bishop of Utah on the Natural Resources Committee; and K. Michael Conaway of Texas on the Agriculture Committee.

If House Republicans recaptured the chamber in 2020, Mr. Walden could regain the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce committee and hold it until 2022, according to House rules.

Mr. Walden’s decision, first reported by Politico, adds to the anxiety privately discussed among House Republicans of an accelerating exodus of some of their most experienced, policy-savvy members.

“As a matter of electoral politics, I don’t think House Rs have a real retirement problem at this point,” Brendan Buck, a former counselor to Speakers Paul D. Ryan and John A. Boehner, wrote on Twitter. “My bigger concern is the quality and type of people who are leaving.” Mr. Buck called Mr. Walden the “embodiment” of his fear that some of “the best members” were departing.

Mr. Walden got his start in congressional politics as the press secretary and chief of staff to Representative Denny Smith, Republican of Oregon, in 1981. He climbed the ranks under the leadership of Mr. Boehner, who called Mr. Walden “my go-to guy” and named him the chairman of Republican leadership in 2010.

Navigating a path in the conference under Mr. Trump’s leadership, however, proved a more fraught task for Mr. Walden, who broke from the president on several high-profile votes, including joining Democrats to rebuke Mr. Trump’s border wall. Earlier this year, he told Politico in a profile that he still had hopes of reclaiming the Energy and Commerce gavel.

“I’m a chairman in exile, dude,” he said.



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