(Bloomberg) -- Trey Gowdy's retirement from Congress at the end of his term is another sign of mounting disillusionment among Republicans faced with the prospect losing the power of their House majority and continued gridlock in Washington.
Gowdy, who rose to prominence leading a special House panel investigating the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, is leaving behind a safe congressional seat and the chairmanship of the powerful House Oversight Committee.
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee investigation, he's helped manage its probe of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election. According to two members of the panel, Gowdy had a leading role in preparing a classified Republican memo that alleges bias and counterintelligence abuses in government surveillance of people surrounding President Donald Trump, according to two members of the panel.
But Gowdy said Wednesday he's no longer interested.
“Whatever skills I may have are better utilized in a courtroom than in Congress, and I enjoy our justice system more than our political system,” the former prosecutor, 53, said in his statement. He didn't elaborate on what he planned to do next.
Republican Departures
Gowdy becomes the 41st Republican in the House to retire, seek other office or resign during this Congress. Seventeen Democrats are leaving.
He is also the ninth chairman of a full committee to depart. Earlier this week, House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, who faced a tough re-election campaign, announced he was going to retire with at least five years left on his term as chairman. That's the biggest exodus of House Republican committee chairmen since 2006, and there are still nine months before congressional elections.
The wave of departures in the Republican ranks has accelerated as the election nears and their agenda is being constrained by deep partisan divides in Congress, as well as ideological rifts within the party.
Stalled Agenda
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has put the brakes on making major changes in entitlement programs, a longtime Republican goal, because it's unlikely get bipartisan consensus. Democrats, meanwhile, have been using their leverage to hold up budget legislation in order to extract concessions on immigration while a group of conservatives in the House has resisted compromise.
The unhappy span the gamut from conservatives like Gowdy to moderates like Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
"As a member of the governing wing of the Republican Party, I've worked to instill stability, certainty and predictability in Washington," Dent said in announcing his exit in September. "Regrettably, that has not been easy given the disruptive outside influences that profit from increased polarization and ideological rigidity that leads to dysfunction, disorder and chaos."
While Gowdy likely would have easily won a fifth term in November -- he was re-elected two years ago with 67 percent of the vote and President Donald Trump won his district by 26 percentage points -- a combination of historical trends and the president's historically low approval ratings point to significant Republican losses.
Electoral Math
Democrats would need a net gain of 24 seats to take control of the House. Since the end of World War II, the party in control of the White House had a net loss of 26 seats in midterm elections. Off-year statewide elections in 2017 in Virginia and New Jersey indicated a Democratic voting base highly motivated by their antipathy to Trump.
Of the 23 Republicans representing districts won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, six have announced their retirements so far. Among the other Democratic targets are 12 Republican-held districts that Trump won but had voted for Democratic President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012. While open seats provide opportunities for Democrats, Republicans point out most of the retirements have been in solid red districts that aren't competitive.
But Democrats winning a majority in the House would mean Republicans losing chairmanships of committees and the party's agenda grinding to a halt. Although Republicans only hold the Senate by two seats, Democrats have a more difficult path there.
Safe Seat
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made no mention of winning back the seat in its statement on Gowdy's retirement, while National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Stivers of Ohio said in statement they are "confident this seat will stay solidly in Republican control in November."
While Gowdy already was a rising star within the Republican Party, he gained national attention in May 2014 when he was appointed chairman of a special committee the House formed to look into the events surrounding an attack in Benghazi in which four Americans were killed.
The investigation unearthed Clinton's use of a private email server for official business while secretary of state, an issue that prompted an FBI investigation and one that dogged her throughout her presidential campaign.
Gowdy assumed control of the Oversight Committee last year after Jason Chaffetz of Utah resigned his seat to pursue a career in media.
He first won election to the House in 2010 when he picked off Republican incumbent Bob Inglis in a primary runoff. He ran in opposition to earmarks and in favor of a troop surge in Iraq. During his first term, Gowdy sided with Tea Party conservatives in opposing spending and debt ceiling bills negotiated with Democrats. He won his fourth term with 67 percent of the vote.
The congressman became a hero to member's of his party's right flank, who urged him to run for House speaker before Paul Ryan of Wisconsin took the job in 2015. He had been under consideration to replace FBI director James Comey before he took himself out of the running.
To contact the reporters on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net, Arit John in Washington at ajohn34@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum
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