Will Katko Be Next?
Monday, Pete King threw in the towel and officially announced his retirement, ushering in a wave of press highlighting vulnerabilities for House Republicans in suburban districts.
Just two months ago, King said, “I fully intend to run for reelection,” and continued actively fundraising for his campaign. Now that he’s changed his mind, the spotlight is fixed on fellow New York Republicans to see who may retire next.
Rumors have been swirling for months that vulnerable Republican John Katko may join the growing list of Members who would rather head for the exits than face tough reelections in 2020.
Back in August, FiveThirtyEight predicted that John Katko may announce his retirement before heading into the on-year, and Central New York news outlets began to question if the Congressman would stick around.
Katko spent the next week defensively responding to the retirement rumors:
“It’s a non-story, it’s just an attempt, a desperate attempt by Democrats to stir up some nonsense here. Actually, quite frankly, I take it as a compliment, because that means they’re worried about my race, and desperately trying to get me to go bye bye…”
We’re not saying Katko will announce his retirement this week or even next week, but we are keeping a close eye out to see what he does next. As Pete King showed us this week, anything can change, and it doesn’t take much time at all to go from running to retiring.
REMINDER: Prior to King’s announcement, the Daily Kos ranked NY-24 as more vulnerable than NY-02. Katko’s district is currently ranked as the 7th most vulnerable Republican-held district in the country. Katko was added to the NRCC’s “Patriot Program” earlier this year, signaling that National Republicans are indeed worried about holding this seat. He’s on the DCCC’s famed Retirement Watch List, which has accurately predicted the retirement of six House members so far this cycle.
###