WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 13: Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) questions CDC Director Rochelle Walensky during a hearing held by the House Oversight and Accountability Select Coronavirus Pandemic Subcommittee on June 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Walensky, whose last day is June 30, has been head of the CDC for a little over two years. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who played a leading role in recent years as House Democrats twice impeached then-President Donald Trump and investigated Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, announced Friday he will not run for the U.S. Senate seat that is opening with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin.
Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee who is in his fourth term, had been weighing a run for the rarely open Senate seat but said in a statement that he would instead seek reelection in the House.
“At this moment, I believe the best way for me to make the greatest difference in American politics in 2024 and beyond is this: to run for reelection to the House of Representatives in Maryland’s extraordinary 8th District,” Raskin said.
Raskin said in the statement that “if these were normal times, I am pretty sure that this is what I would be announcing now.”
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“But these are not normal times and we are still in the fight of our lives for democratic institutions, freedom and basic social progress in America as well as human rights and opportunity for people all over the world,” Raskin said.
"..I have a different and more urgent calling right now and I cannot walk away from the center of this fight in the people’s House and in the country," Raskin said. "We are still in the fight of our lives, the fight for democracy and freedom and for the survival of humanity."
You can read his full statement here.
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Raskin, 60, announced in April that he had completed chemotherapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with a 90% prognosis of no relapse and that his cancer was in remission. It was the second time Raskin had been diagnosed with cancer. He previously battled colorectal cancer in 2010.
So far, Rep. David Trone and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks have announced candidacies for the Democratic primary for the Senate seat. Montgomery County council member Will Jawando also is running.
