Top House China hawk to retire, opening seat in battleground Wisconsin

• House Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wi., chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, will not seek reelection in 2024.
• Gallagher's departure leaves open a seat in the key swing state of Wisconsin.
• Gallagher joins more than a dozen Republicans leaving Congress, threatening the already slim House GOP majority.

House Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wi., chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, announced on Saturday that he would not seek re-election this year, leaving a seat open in a key swing state as the 2024 race kicks into high gear.

The former Marine Corps officer joins an exodus of more than a dozen Republican congress members planning to leave their posts, each one widening the path for Democrats to attempt to win back the House majority. His seat in Wisconsin's 8th congressional district is particularly valuable, given the state's battleground status and House Republicans' current rail-thin majority.

"Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career and, trust me, Congress is no place to grow old," Gallagher said in a statement announcing his departure.

At times, Gallagher has splintered from his party. He was one of three Republicans on Tuesday to buck party leadership and vote against the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, sinking the motion.

He was also a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump's involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, though he opposed the impeachment of Trump that followed.

Despite occasional resistance to his party, Gallagher is still an essential GOP vote representing a key swing state. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 but lost it to President Joe Biden in 2020.

Gallagher's retirement will likely trigger a congressional