U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) will seek re-election to his House seat in 2024, ending speculation that he would make a Senate run against two-term Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin.
The four-term congressman is a rising star in Republican politics, playing a high-profile role as chairman of the new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. He said he has a rare, bipartisan opportunity in this Congress to help restore American strength, prevent war in the Pacific, and defend our basic freedoms from communist aggression.
“Accomplishing this mission and serving Wisconsin’s 8th District deserve my undivided attention. Therefore, I will not run for the Senate in 2024 and will pursue re-election to the House,” Gallagher said in a statement released Friday.
“I believe that when we look back in 50 years, the American people will ask: Did our elected leaders rally as a country and confront the Chinese Communist Party threat before it was too late? Continuing to lead this fight in the House of Representatives is the best way for me to help answer that question affirmatively,” he added.
Political pundits had deemed Gallagher as perhaps the Wisconsin Republican Party’s best shot to knock out far-left incumbent U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin. The Madison Democrat is seeking her third term in 2024.
German-owned Politico reported last week that Gallagher had met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and its chair, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), who was particularly eager to land him and saw him as the strongest prospective challenger. The committee released polling it commissioned in late May, showing Gallagher just 1 percentage point behind Baldwin in a survey of likely voters.
“Mike Gallagher would be a great candidate,” Daines told POLITICO in March. “He’s the kind of candidate that with his distinguished service and then time in Congress, could win both the primary and general election.”
Madison businessman Eric Hovde, who unsuccessfully ran in Wisconsin’s 2012 U.S. Senate race that ultimately saw Baldwin elected to her first term, is considering a run. As are Franklin businessman Scott Mayer and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.
Baldwin, the first open lesbian elected to the House and Senate, has built up a formidable war chest. A Democratic Party official effectively said top Republicans are chicken.
“Senate Republicans’ top potential candidates are refusing to run because they know they cannot beat strong Democratic Senators like Tammy Baldwin,” Amanda Sherman Baity, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “Even the most sought after GOP recruits know their party’s toxic agenda and their vicious primaries will lead their campaigns to defeat in the general election.”
Gallagher, a Marine Corps and Iraq War veteran, has won each of his House elections by over 25 percent. In November, Gallagher garnered more than 70 percent of the vote – the largest margin of victory in the history of the Eighth Congressional District.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Mike Gallagher” by Mike Gallagher.
