The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

GOP Rep. John Katko announces he won’t seek reelection

January 14, 2022 at 2:37 p.m. EST

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) said Friday he will not seek another term in Congress, becoming the third of the 10 Republicans who voted last year to impeach former president Donald Trump to announce their retirement.

In a statement posted to his Facebook page, Katko, 59, said that he made the decision “so that I can enjoy my family and life in a fuller and more present way.”

“My conscience, principles, and commitment to do what’s right have guided every decision I’ve made as a Member of Congress, and they guide my decision today,” said Katko, who is in his fourth term in Congress. “It is how I’ve been able to unite people to solve problems, and how I was rewarded with resounding victories in every single campaign for Congress.”

In a whiplash-inducing turn last year, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had deputized Katko to negotiate with Democrats on legislation to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Katko, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security panel, reached a deal with the chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), and announced the plan, only to have McCarthy reject it. The measure was approved by the Democratic-led House but blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

The House later formed its own bipartisan select committee to investigate the attack, which resulted in five deaths and injured 140 law enforcement officers.

Katko was one of 13 House Republicans to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, drawing the ire of some GOP colleagues who cast the 13 as “traitors” for helping to deliver a legislative win for President Biden.

Trump celebrated the news of Katko’s retirement Friday.

“Great news, another one bites the dust,” the former president said in a statement. “Katko, from Upstate New York, is gone!”

In his statement Friday, Katko noted that he and his wife, Robin — “the most loving and patient wife on earth” — had buried all four of their parents over the past three years.

“To say that those gut-wrenching times provided life-changing perspective for me is putting it mildly,” he said.

New York lost one congressional seat after the 2020 Census reapportionment and that seat is expected to come from the northern part of the state where Katko’s district is.

Draft maps suggested merging Katko’s district with a neighboring one represented by GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney, which would have forced the two lawmakers into a primary. New York Democrats, who hold the governor’s seat and supermajorities in the legislature, have full control over redistricting.

National Democrats cited Katko’s retirement as the latest sign that the Republican Party has been pushed to the far right and is no longer welcoming to moderates.

“It makes perfect sense that Rep. Katko decided to resign rather than try and run in a political environment that is so toxic for so-called GOP moderates,” Abel Iraola, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “Republican leaders continue to push their members to the far-right extreme and it is showing its wear on vulnerable members.”

Colby Itkowitz contributed to this report.