WASHINGTON — One of President Trump’s most loyal supporters, Representative Mark Meadows, announced on Thursday that he would leave Congress at the end of his term in January 2021.
“For everything there is a season. After prayerful consideration and discussion with family, today I’m announcing that my time serving Western North Carolina in Congress will come to a close at the end of this term,” Mr. Meadows said in a statement. “My work with President Trump and his administration is only beginning.”
“This was a decision I struggled with greatly,” he said.
Friday is the deadline to file for re-election in Mr. Meadows’s congressional district.
Mr. Meadows’s announcement comes a day after he voted against two articles of impeachment against the president. Ultimately the Democrats won the vote and impeached Mr. Trump over his pressure campaign against Ukraine, making him the third president to be impeached in the country’s history.
After the vote on Wednesday, Mr. Meadows wrote in a Twitter post, “Today will be remembered as the day your House Democrat majority voted to impeach President @realDonaldTrump for a crime they couldn’t find and a case they couldn’t prove. You won’t forget. And neither will we.”
Mr. Meadows is now the 25th House Republican to leave before the next Congress, citing retirement or ambitions for another political post.
The exodus of House Republicans has in part been fueled by frustrations with the gridlock in Congress, term limits on leadership positions and a reluctance to go through a difficult re-election campaign with Mr. Trump on the ballot.
Mr. Meadows is the third Republican from North Carolina to announce his decision to leave Congress; he made no mention of the newly redrawn districts in his state in his statement. Mr. Meadows was still expected to keep his seat, despite what was expected to be a more challenging re-election campaign.