House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) said Nov. 6 that he will not run for office again in 2020, ending a 35-year career in public office and opening up the chairmanship to new candidates should Democrats hold the majority after next year’s elections.
“For my entire career I have worked to build support for our domestic steel industry and organized labor, secure investments in transformational projects and improve our quality of place to benefit the only place I have ever called home,” Visclosky, 70, said in a Wednesday statement. He entered the House in 1985 and took over control of the defense appropriations subcommittee gavel in January following the House switch from a Republican majority to Democratic. He also sits on the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee.
The Indiana lawmaker did not provide a reason for his decision to leave Congress. Shortly after his announcement, Thomas McDermott, the Democratic mayor of Hammond, Indiana, announced his campaign to run for Visclosky’s House seat.
Visclosky had already received nearly $198,000 in campaign funds toward his 2020 re-election, according to data compiled by the bipartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Over a dozen defense contractors were among his top 20 donors, with four contributing more than $10,000: General Dynamics, BAE Systems, Boeing, and L3 Technologies – which in June officially closed on its merger with Harris Corp. to form L3Harris Technologies.
Over the course of his congressional career, Visclosky received nearly $1.7 million in campaign contributions from the defense industry. Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and General Atomics are among his top 10 career-wide contributors, donating nearly $159,000, nearly $132,000 and over $126,000, respectively.
His Republican counterpart, HAC-D Ranking Member Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), called Visclosky’s dedication to U.S. military personnel “second to none” and that “Pete’s expertise in national security issues will be sorely missed.”
