Rep. Pete Olson, first elected in 2008, announced Thursday that he would not seek a seventh term in his increasingly diverse district. Democrats had viewed the seat as one that could come open because it has been increasingly difficult for Republicans to defend.
Olson cited family reasons for stepping down at the end of this session, saying in a statement that his time in Congress had come “at great personal sacrifice to my family.” His statement added, “As someone who has long advocated for policies that put our families first, it’s time for me to take my own advice and be a more consistent presence to help our family.”
His office said he was not available for an interview Friday.
The district — Texas’ 22nd, in the southern suburbs of Houston — has been represented by a Republican for all but two of the past 40 years; former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay held it for two decades. But the 2018 election there was unusually close: Olson won by 5 percentage points, compared with 19 points in 2016. At the presidential level, the district went Republican by 8 points in 2016, down from 25 points four years earlier.
Olson’s last Democratic challenger, Sri Preston Kulkarni, is running again in 2020.
“Now is not the time to rest,” Kulkarni, a former diplomat, said in a statement Thursday. “Now is the time to fight harder than ever. It’s time to ensure that we have leadership in Congress that believes in affordable and high-quality medical care, higher wages for working families and a fair education system.”
He will face Nyanza Moore, a lawyer, in the Democratic primary, along with other possible challengers. On Twitter, Moore responded to the news of Olson’s retirement with a hashtag: “#TakeTheSeat.”
The district is something of a case study for the demographic changes happening in many parts of the country — changes that Democrats hope will open up new paths to victory for them. People of color, who tend to lean Democratic, represent a growing portion of the electorate in states like Texas that have long been reliably Republican, a trend that is especially apparent in Olson’s district.
Olson was one of three Republican members of Congress to announce their retirements this week.
Rep. Paul Mitchell of Michigan did so Wednesday, saying in a speech on the House floor: “My objective has always been simply to work to address significant challenges this nation faces: health care, immigration and infrastructure, for example. However, it appears to me that rhetoric overwhelms policy, and politics consumes much of the oxygen in this city.”
And Friday, Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama said that she, too, would leave at the end of her term. Despite voting with President Donald Trump most of the time for the past 2 1/2 years, she had suffered politically for criticizing him in 2016 in response to the Access Hollywood tape that showed him boasting about forcing himself on women.
Mitchell’s and Roby’s seats, both heavily Republican, are not likely to be competitive in 2020.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.