Tom Graves, after year in GOP House minority, announces retirement from Congress

“The opportunities afforded to me — a North Georgia country boy from a single wide trailer — were far beyond my wildest dreams,” Graves said.

Graves won his House seat in a June 2010 special election, five months before Republicans won a sweeping midterm victory and reclaimed the majority the party lost in 2006. Graves previously was a state representative for seven years.

He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which decides how federal dollars are spent. When Republicans held the majority, for two years he chaired the Legislative Branch subcommittee, responsible for the Capitol’s internal operations.

Over his near-decade in Congress, Graves has largely voted with Republican leadership. His district, in the northwest corner of Georgia, is strongly Republican, meaning Graves’ successor will hail from the party. President Trump in 2016 walloped Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the district 75%-22%. That means that the race for his successor will effectively be decided in the May 19 primary and potentially the July 21 runoff.

Graves joins 16 other House Republicans retiring after the 2020 elections and not seeking another elected office, compared to six Democrats.

The departures fit a pattern of House minority party lawmakers quitting Congress after they’re booted from the majority. The House’s winner-take-all rules mean minority party members have little, if any, influence on what legislation gets considered, and their votes for the most part aren’t needed to pass bills.

Top political analysts on Thursday tied those changed circumstances for Graves to his departure from Congress.

“Translation: ‘Being in the minority in the House is a bummer. Peace out,'” tweeted Jay Cost, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.