WASHINGTON — One of President Trump’s most loyal supporters, Republican Representative Mark Meadows, of North Carolina, announced Thursday that he would leave Congress at the end of his term in January 2021.
“For everything there is a season. After prayerful consideration and discussion with family, today I’m announcing that my time serving Western North Carolina in Congress will come to a close at the end of this term,” Meadows said in a statement. “My work with President Trump and his administration is only beginning.”
“This was a decision I struggled with greatly,” he said.
Meadows is now the 25th House Republican to leave before the next Congress, citing retirement or ambitions for another political post, an exodus that has been fueled in part by frustration at being deprived of power in the minority and term limits on leadership positions.
First elected in 2012, Meadows cofounded the conservative House Freedom Caucus and served as a consistent thorn in the sides of two successive Republican speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan. But he found his most powerful perch as one of Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill — and last year was considered for the position of the president’s chief of staff.
Meadows did not elaborate further in a brief interview Thursday about what his continued work with Trump might entail.
“There’s a number of options, but I’ll certainly be helping the president and hopefully helping him get reelected,” he said.
Meadows added he would miss being able to help his constituents in North Carolina and the “intellectual bantering back and forth” on the House floor. “I don’t mind the combat,” he said.
As House Democrats began their impeachment inquiry into Trump over his pressure campaign against Ukraine, Meadows emerged as one of the president’s leading defenders and was frequently spotted huddling with the president at the White House, proximity that fueled his political influence even as Republicans held little power in the House.
Asked by a North Carolina newspaper if the Freedom Caucus was still relevant in a Democratic-controlled House, Meadows smiled. “Oh, more relevant than you might imagine,” he said.
His role as a critical supporter of the president came as a departure for Meadows, who built a reputation on his hunger to challenge the Republican establishment and its leaders. In an escalation of the bad blood simmering between the right flank of the Republican conference represented by Meadows and the more centrist leadership, in 2015 he attempted to overthrow Boehner, ultimately influencing the then-House speaker’s decision to retire early.
Under Ryan’s tenure as speaker, the House Freedom Caucus, led by Meadows, continued to flex its muscles as the most powerful group of lawmakers in Congress.
While praising his conservative record, Republican lawmakers also underscored another, more unusual aspect of Meadows’s congressional career: his ability to build friendships across the aisle.
“Not only is Mark a top-notch conservative, he’s an upstanding individual, who looks to build friendships with all of his colleagues,” Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, the current chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said in a statement. “In a growing partisan climate, Mark’s example is a breath of fresh air and one that we all should strive to emulate.”
In one of the more improbable alliances in Congress, Meadows counted as a close friend the late Democratic Representative Elijah E. Cummings, of Maryland, who served as the chairman of the powerful Oversight Committee. The two worked together on prescription drug legislation, and when Cummings died in October, Meadows delivered an emotional eulogy.
As Meadows eyes his next job, it is not immediately clear who his successor might be. Friday is the deadline to file for reelection in his heavily Republican congressional district — a short turnaround time for any potential candidate.
Meadows is the third Republican from North Carolina to announce his decision to leave Congress; he made no mention of the newly redrawn districts in his state in his statement. Meadows was still expected to keep his seat, despite what was expected to be a more challenging reelection campaign.
His announcement comes a day after he voted against two articles of impeachment against the president. Ultimately, the Democrats won the vote and impeached Trump, making him the third president to be impeached in US history.