Rep. Mike Gallagher is leaving the House too late for Wisconsin to hold a special election to replace him, and his fellow Republicans aren’t thrilled.
“I wouldn’t have made the same decision,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden said. “Does that mean we throw tomatoes at each other? No. But If I had planned to retire, I wouldn’t have made the same decision on time that he did.”
Gallagher was initially planning to resign on Friday but now expects to stay until after votes Saturday on foreign aid. Once he’s gone, House Speaker Mike Johnson will have a margin of error of a single vote. And the seat won’t be filled until January — the deadline for Wisconsin to hold a special election to temporarily fill it was the first Tuesday of April.