Mike Gal­lagher to leave House ear­ly in blow to Speak­er Johnson’s GOP major­i­ty

Rep. Mike Gal­lagher (R‑WI) will retire from the House months before his term ends next year, set­ting up a sce­nario in which House Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA) could have a one-seat major­i­ty.
Gal­lagher will step down effec­tive April 19, mak­ing him the lat­est in a string of Repub­li­cans who have announced they would leave the House ear­ly and fur­ther nar­row­ing the party’s slim con­trol in the low­er cham­ber. Gallagher’s depar­ture also deals a blow to GOP lead­er­ship because the Wis­con­sin Repub­li­can sits as the chair­man of the Select Com­mit­tee on the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty.
“Four terms serv­ing North­east Wis­con­sin in Con­gress has been the hon­or of a life­time and strength­ened my con­vic­tion that Amer­i­ca is the great­est coun­try in the his­to­ry of the world,” Gal­lagher said in a state­ment. “I will for­ev­er be proud of the work I did on the Armed Ser­vices and Intell …