Tennessee Republican Rep. Phil Roe announced Friday that he will not run for reelection to the seat he first won in 2008.
Roe, 74, a doctor who practiced as an OB-GYN in Johnston City, Tennessee, for 31 years, is the top Republican on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Roe previously was chairman of the committee but lost that post when House Democrats won the majority in 2018. Roe is also a member of the House Education and Labor Committee.
“Serving East Tennesseans these past 11 years has been the honor of my life, and I will be forever grateful for the trust my friends and neighbors put in me to represent them,” Roe said in a statement. “As someone who practiced medicine for over 30 years, I said I would serve five or six terms because I never intended this job to be a second career. After prayerful consideration, I have decided to retire at the end of the 116th Congress.”
Roe has been a major player during the Obamacare debates, helping to author a free-market alternative to the Affordable Care Act. He is the co-chairman of the House GOP Doctors Caucus and a co-chairman of the Congressional Academic Medicine Caucus.
Roe vocally battled with his Democratic colleagues on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee several months ago, when he led Republican members of the committee to walk-out of a hearing after Chairman Mark Takano of California refused to allow debate on a women veterans healthcare bill.
“I could care less what your political party is when it comes to veterans issues. I just want to help take care of veterans,” Roe said. “Today, we didn’t do that. We made a partisan committee out of something that should never have happened.”
Roe is the 22nd House Republican retiring after the 2020 elections without seeking other office, compared to six Democrats. It’s not unusual for lawmakers to leave after having been a committee chairman when their party ran the House, only to be deposed to the minority in the latest election.
The district represented by Roe, in Tennesse’s northeast corner along the Virginia and North Carolina state lines, is virtually assured of staying in Republican hands. The area has been represented by Republicans in Congress since 1881, and in 2016 President Trump won 76% there.
