U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis) speaks from his office in the U.S. Capitol as rioters storm the building on Jan. 6, 2021 | Screenshot via Youtube
U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Green Bay) was a rising star in the Wisconsin Republican Party before Saturday, when he suddenly announced his plans to retire.
Heavily recruited to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, he was seen by top Republican strategists as “their best shot to block Baldwin for a third term,” according to Politico .
In a closely divided purple state, Gallagher looked like the rare Republican who could break out beyond the hardcore base and match Baldwin’s strength — garnering bipartisan support to win statewide elections. Young, friendly, a Marine Corps veteran with a forthright style and a reputation for seeking bipartisan consensus as the chair of a committee investigating China, Gallagher was widely perceived as the face of the Wisconsin Republican Party’s future.
But that was before last week’s failed vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — a political stunt Gallagher refused to join. He enraged his pro-Trump colleagues with his sensible rejection of their effort to pin the entire broken U.S. immigration system on Mayorkas. He knew Mayorkas had been working on the bipartisan border security deal with Republicans before they reversed course and shot the whole thing down at the behest of former President Donald Trump, who wants to use border security as a wedge issue in the 2024 election. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, he explained why he didn’t believe in pursuing impeachment efforts aimed at “maladministration.” While repeating his party’s hawkish talking points on immigration, he pointed out that none of their complaints against Mayorkas rose to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”