WASHINGTON – Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, on Wednesday became the latest House Republican to announce plans to retire at the end of his current term, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and resume private-sector business activities.
Rep. Bill Flores U.S.House Republicans
“After much prayer over the past few days and following conversations with my wife, Gina, during that time, I have decided that my current term will be my last,” Flores, 65, who was first elected in 2010, said in a statement.
He is the 15th member of the House Republican caucus – five of them from Texas – to announce a resignation, retirement or plans to run for another office next year. By contrast, only three Democrats have announced plans to voluntarily exit the chamber, which their party currently controls.
Flores, a retired oil and gas executive, first won his seat by defeating a longtime Democratic incumbent. His Central Texas district has since become reliably Republican.
Flores serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has been active in the Republican Study Committee, which had been the caucus of the House’s most conservative members.
Several of the Republican retirements have been in increasingly competitive districts; in three of them, GOP incumbents won reelection by fewer than five percentage points in 2018. But others are in safer districts.
Last year, Flores prevailed with nearly 57 percent of the vote.
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who announced his plans to retire last Friday, won reelection by a landslide last year and hails from a GOP stronghold.
In his statement, Flores said his family had “evolved substantially” in the nearly 10 years since he first ran for Congress.
“Gina lost her father, we picked up a daughter-in-law, added four awesome grandkids and watched my Mom and Dad move further along their senior years,” Flores said. “My job as Representative has made it difficult to spend as much time with Gina and the rest of my family as I would like.”
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