WASHINGTON, Jan 9: US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, a reliable ally of President Donald Trump in Congress, announced today he will not seek re-election this year.
The 13-term Republican said he wants to spend his final months in office focusing on “urgent threats” including the regimes in North Korea and Iran, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to “fracture western democracies.”
“With this in mind, and with the support of my wife Marie, I have decided not to seek re-election in November,” he said in a statement.
Royce represents a California district that Democrat Hillary Clinton carried by about nine points in the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats have launched a grassroots effort to try to regain control of Congress, and Royce’s seat was a prime target.
Several other Republican committee chairs have said they are exiting after their chairmanships expire at the end of this year due to term limits, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Transportation chief Bill Shuster. (AGENCIES)
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