Rep. Fred Upton is planning to retire from Congress, according to an email the Michigan Republican sent to supporters Tuesday morning, GOP sources confirmed.
Upton, 68, later announced his retirement in a House floor speech. Upton has represented western Michigan in the House since 1987 and has toyed with retirement in recent years, only to stick around and fend off the occasional GOP primary challenger and silence conservative critics who accused him of being too centrist. But this year, Upton also was contending with opposition from former President Donald Trump.
Upton in his House floor speech Tuesday stressed his bipartisan credentials.
“I’ve worked with seven administration, seven House speakers — none of them would call me a rubber stamp,” Upton said. “If it’s good policy for Michigan, it’s good enough for all of us.”
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Upton added, “Hopefully, civility and bipartisanship can rule, not rue the day.”
Upton voted to impeach Trump toward the end of the former president’s single term in office.
He was one of 10 House Republicans who found Trump culpable for the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol, along with Reps. John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.
Combined with changes to his district in decennial reapportionment, Upton appears to have concluded that retirement was preferable to fighting through what could have been the most difficult GOP primary challenge of his career. Upton was slated to fight out a Republican primary against Rep. Bill Huizenga in western Michigan’s 4th Congressional District.
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Upton first won his House seat in 1986 by beating another Republican in the primary. Upton steadily rose through the GOP ranks and was chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from 2011-17.
