House Financial Services Committee Chairman Won’t Seek Re-election

Another member of the GOP has announced he won’t seek re-election in 2018. This time it’s Rep. Jeb Hensarling, who will retire from Congress at the end of his term as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

According to news from CNBC, the 60-year-old Republican from Texas said in a statement that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

“I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned,” said Hensarling, who was first elected to Congress in 2002.

During his time at the House Financial Services Committee, Hensarling has been a supporter of rolling back Dodd-Frank, which is designed to limit the high-risk practices that triggered the financial crisis. The House passed a bill in June that would eliminate many of the key elements of those reforms. Hensarling said he also looks forward to working with the rest of Congress on overhauling the tax code before he leaves office.

Hensarling is the latest Republican lawmaker to announce his retirement from Congress, with Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. Bob Corker both announcing they would not be running in 2018.

If he had chosen to run again, Hensarling wasn’t in danger of losing re-election. In the 2016 election, he won his House seat with about 81 percent of the vote – a far greater margin than the 50 percent of ballots cast that won Flake his Senate seat.