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Trump Ally Meadows Won’t Run Again in 2020

North Carolina Republican Mark Meadows, a top ally of President Donald Trump, announced Thursday he is retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives but hinted at a future role in the White House.

/ December 19, 2019
FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2019, file photo, Rep. Mark Meadows, R- N.C., speaks to reporters as the hearing with top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor, and career Foreign Service officer George Kent, at the House Intelligence Committee ends on Capitol Hill in Washington. In a statement Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, the North Carolina congressman and top ally to President Donald Trump says he struggled with the decision and came to it after discussion with his family.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

(CN) – North Carolina Republican Mark Meadows, a top ally of President Donald Trump, announced Thursday he is retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives but hinted at a future role in the White House.

A day after the House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump, Meadows, one of the president’s staunchest supports on Capitol Hill, revealed that he is not going to run for reelection in 2020.

"My work with President Trump and his administration is only beginning. This President has accomplished incredible results for the country in just three years, and I'm fully committed to staying in the fight with him and his team to build on those successes and deliver on his promises for the years to come," Meadows said in a statement.

"I've always said Congress is a temporary job, but the fight to return Washington, D.C. to its rightful owner, We The People, has only just begun," the four-term congressman added.

Meadows has been rumored as a possible replacement for acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. He told reporters Thursday that taking on a role in the White House or on Trump’s 2020 campaign are both options that are on the table.

The 60-year-old is currently a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative and libertarian members who pushed hardline conservative policies and often rebelled against House Republican leaders.

Meadows moved to the mountains of North Carolina in the 1980s from Florida and opened a restaurant. He then got a real estate license to sell houses in the area and made millions of dollars as a real estate developer before deciding to run for a seat in Congress in 2012.

He earned the Republican nomination that same year after triumphing in an eight-way primary and won the general election to represent North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.

Two other Republican congressman from North Carolina, George Holding and Mark Walker, recently announced they will not run again in 2020 either. Those announcements followed statewide redistricting this year that shifted their districts left.

All 13 U.S. House districts in the state were redrawn after a panel of judges in Raleigh ruled that the congressional maps were unconstitutionally drawn to favor Republicans.

Meadows' new district appeared favorable to him as a Republican, even though it put a heavily Democratic area, Asheville, into his territory.

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Categories / Government, National, Politics

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