Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., announced Saturday he will not seek reelection, saying he is stepping away from the chamber for personal reasons at the end of his fourth term in office.
The congressman and former Marine Corps intelligence officer said he has always considered his service in Congress to be a "deployment, not a career," telling The Wall Street Journal that "eight years is a long deployment, and it's been a hell of a deployment."
Gallagher, 39, is a married father of two and commented he wants to expand his family, but "Congress is not an ideal place to build and raise a family."
The congressman chairs a select House committee that works on strategies to help the United States compete against China and serves on the chamber's Intelligence and Armed Services committees.
Gallagher has also ruled out running for the Senate, saying he prefers to serve in the House. His campaign committee had more than $4 million in cash on hand at the end of last year, or more than any other House Republican, according to federal records.
He has been known to split with his party on some issues, including last week, when he was one of a handful of party members voting against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, helping to deal a defeat to the party's calls to oust the secretary over his actions concerning the U.S.-Mexico border.
Gallagher also refused to object to the results of the 2020 presidential race in Arizona and Pennsylvania and, during the Jan. 6 protests at the Capitol, urged then-President Donald Trump to "call it off." He did not vote to impeach Trump.
Gallagher's decision means 49 House lawmakers are not returning to the next Congress, and he said that once he is out of office, he wants to advance a mission to "restore deterrence in order to prevent World War III."
"There are other ways I can have an impact on advancing that mission, either from the private sector or from a different perch," he said.