Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) will resign from Congress due to his wife’s illness, according to reports.
Stewart’s resignation will shrink the GOP’s already thin majority in the House until a replacement can be picked during a special election.
The congressman is a U.S. Air Force veteran and author.
He was first elected in 2012 and is currently serving his 6th term in Congress.
In 2022, he won reelection over Democrat Nick Mitchell by over 30 points.
His resignation will leave open a Republican seat on the House Appropriations and Intelligence Committees.
But more importantly, however, his departure will reduce the GOP’s thin majority to just three seats.
There are currently 222 Republicans and 213 Democrats in the House.
Republicans can only afford to lose four votes on a bill if all Democrats vote against it.
That is not easy to navigate for Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Stewart’s departure will drop that number to three.
Utah Republican Chris Stewart plans to resign from House https://t.co/MadtfT7pby
— POLITICO (@politico) May 30, 2023
Stewart could resign as early as this week, which would reduce Republicans’ already-slim majority in the House and trigger a special election. https://t.co/WYgptKy018
— POLITICO (@politico) May 30, 2023
In addition to the Appropriations and Intelligence committees, he is a member of the Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. https://t.co/6dFPK4wlDG
— Roll Call (@rollcall) May 30, 2023
According to The Salt Lake Tribune:
Picking a replacement for the remainder of Stewart’s term will require a special election.
Once Stewart officially announces he’s resigning, Gov. Spencer Cox has seven days to set the primary and special election schedule.
Under state law, those dates will be the same as this year’s municipal primary and general elections, unless the Legislature appropriates money to hold an election on a different date.
Utah’s 2nd congressional district stretches along the state’s western and southern borders, dissecting Great Salt Lake and running south to St. George.
The district includes Utah’s southern portion of the Interstate 15 corridor and Zion National Park.
It’s also the state’s largest district, covering more than 40,000 square miles — bigger than the entire state of Indiana.
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