CLEVELAND — Rep. Anthony Gonzalez — one in every of 10 Republicans who voted to question former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol — won’t search re-election to his northern Ohio seat in 2022.
“Since getting into politics, I’ve all the time stated that I’ll do that job for so long as the voters could have me and it nonetheless works for my household,” Gonzalez stated in a statement he tweeted late Thursday. “As Elizabeth and I take into account the realities of continuous in public service whereas juggling the rising obligations of being dad and mom to our two stunning youngsters, it’s clear that the perfect path for our household is to not search re-election subsequent fall.”
He added that, whereas household was on the coronary heart of his determination, “it’s also true that the present state of our politics, particularly lots of the poisonous dynamics inside our personal occasion, is a big consider my determination.”
A former standout huge receiver at Ohio State College and first-round NFL draft choose, Gonzalez is the primary of the pro-impeachment Republicans in Congress to determine in opposition to working for an additional time period.
Gonzalez, who will flip 37 this weekend, was going through a troublesome main in opposition to Max Miller, a former Trump aide from the Cleveland space who has the previous president’s endorsement. Trump got here to Ohio to marketing campaign for Miller this summer season — his first political rally since leaving workplace.
Gonzalez had been elevating more cash than Miller and instructed The New York Instances, which was first to report his determination, that he believed he may have received.
“You’ll be able to combat your butt off and win this factor,” he instructed the newspaper, “however are you actually going to be completely happy? And the reply is, most likely not.”
Gonzalez was first elected to symbolize Ohio’s sixteenth Congressional District in 2018. He had been a dependable conservative vote within the Home however didn’t hew as carefully to Trump as others. When first working for the seat, he described Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., one other Trump critic inside the GOP, as his political idol.
