Gowdy became a household name for chairing the House select committee on the 2012 terrorist attack on the U. S. Embassy in Benghazi.<\/b>
\nRep. Trey Gowdy announced Wednesday that he will not run for reelection.
„There is a time to come and a time to go. This is the right time, for me, to leave politics and return to the justice system,“ he said in the statement posted to Twitter.
Gowdy became a household name for chairing the House select committee on the 2012 terrorist attack on the U. S. Embassy in Benghazi.
His near laser-like focus on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won him accolades from hardline Republicans and scorn from democrats.
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Gowdy pressed for the prosecution of Clinton during the 2016 campaign, citing her use of a private email server while running the State Department.
Gowdy joins the ranks of eight fellow powerful GOP committee chairmen who have announced they will not run for reelection.
That represents a larger movement in Congress.
So far, more than 50 of the House\u2019s 435 members have announced they are leaving Congress \u2014 35 Republicans and 16 Democrats.
\u201cWhatever skills I may have are better utilized in a courtroom than in Congress, and I enjoy our justice system more than our political system,\u201d he said.
It\u2019s unclear exactly what the 53-year-old has planned for the future.
The Hill noted that a vacancy on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over South Carolina, opened up just one day before Gowdy announced his retirement.
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