Rep. Mike Gallagher To Leave Congress, Further Shrinking House Republican Majority

Mike Johnson’s razor-thin House majority got even tinier on Friday, after Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher announced plans to retire in April.

Gallagher, who has served in Congress since 2016 and currently chairs a congressional select committee investigating the Chinese Communist Party, said in a statement that the move came “after conversations with my family,” but did not elaborate on his reasons for leaving. Puck News’ Teddy Schleifer reported Friday that Gallagher plans to take a job at Palantir, the major analytics company founded by Peter Thiel.

Though the Iraq war veteran had announced last month that he wouldn’t seek re-election next year, the move still comes as a major surprise, as Gallagher was considered a rising star in the party, and departing Congress mid-term is generally unusual for a committee chair.

The congressman’s resignation will become effective on April 19, according to his statement. “I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline and look forward to seeing Speaker Mike Johnson appoint a new chair to carry out the important mission of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher’s seat will remain empty for the rest of his term, which means that the GOP can only spare one defection in future votes in which all members are present. That margin will likely dwindle even further in late April, as Democrats are set to fill a blue seat vacated in February by Representative Brian Higgins, though the GOP will likely claw a couple seats back in two subsequent special elections to fill seats vacated by Ohio’s Bill Johnson and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“It’s tough, but it’s tough with a five-seat majority, it’s tough with a two-seat majority, one is going to be the same,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Friday, per Politico. “We all have to work together. We’re all going to have to unite if we’re going get some things done,”

Gallagher’s original decision not to seek re-election came after he was one of just three Republicans to vote against the impeachment of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which drew blowback from his own party.

The move comes at an inauspicious moment for Speaker Johnson, who is facing a brewing revolt from far-right members of the House GOP caucus over the budget deal that passed Friday with disproportionate Democratic support. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has already filed a motion to vacate Johnson’s speakership—the same process that felled his predecessor. Gallagher’s departure increases the odds that, if Greene does decide to move forward with the motion, Johnson will be forced to rely on Democratic votes to maintain his hold on the speaker’s gavel.

The chaos that has engulfed the House over the past year has contributed to a wave of retirements, including the recent departure of Colorado Representative Ken Buck, whose decision to retire imminently seemed to take Johnson by surprise. “I think, I hope and believe that that’s the end of the exits for now,” Johnson said earlier this month of Buck’s decision to leave.