Why I Don’t Plan to Ever Run for Public Office Again

It’s not why you think…

When I first ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 1st congressional district in 2008, I did it because I thought I could make a difference if I were elected. And as a fiscal and social conservative who believed in smaller government, lower taxes, and the sanctity of life, I was confident that I could do better than the 9-term liberal Democratic incumbent I was running to replace.

After all, during his 18 years in office, my opponent had managed to introduce over 500 bills – more than double the number of any other congressman – while only seeing less than 10 get out of committee and just two enacted into law, giving him one of the lowest career “batting averages” in the history of the House of Representatives.

And yet, after winning the Republican primary by a 4-to-1 margin, I lost the general election in a landslide. Apparently, the voters didn’t care that their representative was an inept legislator, nor did it matter to them that he had bumped his own wife off the ticket just weeks before the election in order to run for re-election himself.

Lesson learned… or so one would think, because I gave it the old “college try” one more time two years later. Once again, I won the GOP primary handily and once again, I went down to defeat in November, despite doing substantially better percentagewise.

Enough is enough, I thought. Let someone else take up the torch and tilt at windmills in a district where a Republican hadn’t won since 1972. Licking my wounds – and exhausted from knocking on 10,000 doors each election cycle while maintaining a full-time job – I packed up our family and headed south to the warmer climate of Vero Beach, Florida.

Swaying palm trees and gentle sea breezes did wonders for my damaged psyche and so, by 2016 I was ready to give running for public office one last shot. However, this time I didn’t even make it out of the 4-way GOP primary, so I figured it was three strikes and you’re out.

Since then, I have been asked many times to run for everything from school board to Congress… and I have declined each time. Not because I didn’t think I could win; but because my wife and family had already paid a hefty price in my previous campaigns. But now, having watched the gridlock and gamesmanship in both Washington and Tallahassee over the past nine years, I have an even better reason not to run.

Simply put, I am convinced that I can make more of a difference as a pastor and a private citizen than I ever could as a state legislator or even as a U.S. congressman… and I am not alone in that realization.

Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) has represented Maine’s 2nd congressional district, the largest east of the Mississippi River, since 2019. A self-described “progressive conservative” who serves as co-chair of the “Blue Dog Coalition”, Golden represents a district encompassing the northern four-fifths of the state, including the cities of Lewiston, Bangor, and Auburn, along with the state capital of Augusta. Although President Trump won the 2nd district in both 2020 and 2024, Golden has managed to win re-election three times.

So why is Rep. Golden voluntarily retiring after his current term expires in 2026?

"After 11 years as a legislator, I have grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community,” he wrote in an opinion piece published in his hometown newspaper.

Golden is a moderate Democrat who has sometimes broken with his party on key votes. Recently, he voted with his Republican colleagues on a measure to end the shutdown and fund the government. As a result, he was facing a left-wing challenger in the Democratic primary, and former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is also running for the seat.

Despite those factors, Golden wrote that he doesn't believe he would have lost a bid for reelection. Rather, the former U.S. Marine, who was deployed in both Afghanistan and Iraq, says that he fears for his safety and his family's safety if he stays in office.

Just as importantly, Golden believes that the hostile political climate in Washington prevents him or anyone else from getting anything worthwhile accomplished.

"I don't fear losing. What has become apparent to me is that I now dread the prospect of winning," he wrote. "Simply put, what I could accomplish in this increasingly unproductive Congress pales in comparison to what I could do in that time as a husband, a father and a son."

BAM! Does that hit home or what?

Golden’s reason for retiring from Congress at the tender age of 43 is both an indictment of a broken system of government as well as a clear reminder about what really matters.

Despite our political differences, I have come to the same conclusion as Jared Golden. Had I been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 or 2010, I would have been one of 435 congressmen constantly hounded by lobbyists and special interest groups, while being pressured by powerbrokers in my own party and demonized by those in the opposition… no to mention the media. And as former Rep. Jim Saxton once told me, “Don’t run for Congress unless you’re prepared to spend 3-5 hours every night on the phone asking people for money”, which is something I hate to do and am not very good at.

Meanwhile, what about the constituents I would have been elected to serve? Where would they have fit into the equation? And even more importantly, how much time would I have left at the end of the day for my wife and kids, who were 21, 19, and 17 at the time of my first congressional campaign?

Another thought that has since occurred to me concerns the fact that I am a social conservative first and foremost, even before I am a fiscal conservative, although I firmly believe that the two positions go hand-in-hand. In fact, when I ran for the Florida state legislature in 2016, I promised that – if elected – the first piece of legislation I would introduce would be a “Human Heartbeat Act”, outlawing abortions after 18 days, which is when the embryo’s heart starts beating.

Since then, the State of Florida has passed laws restricting abortions, first to 15 weeks and more recently to six weeks, and I vigorously supported both measures. But guess what happened after those new limitations were put into place? The number of abortions in Florida has actually increased, thanks largely to “destination abortions” from neighboring states with even more restrictive laws and especially due to the availability of the so-called ‘abortion pill”.

In other words, we – as social conservatives – can do our very best to close every possible door to abortions; but unfortunately, abortion providers and the soulless Progressives who champion their cause will still try to climb through every available window.

You talk about frustrating…

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep trying to preserve and protect every innocent preborn life. On the contrary, we should redouble our efforts to do exactly that. However, I am convinced that whereas legislative means should be employed whenever possible, the most effective way to fight the scourge of abortion is to wage war in the spiritual realm.

In short, we need to win people to Jesus… and that, my friend, is where I intend to focus my energies. Like Jared Golden in Maine, I no longer wish to spin my wheels in the political lane when I can make much better time – and have a much greater impact – traveling in the spiritual one.

Save a soul and chances are, you save a preborn baby or prevent an unplanned pregnancy altogether. Save a soul and chances are, you prevent someone from getting hooked on drugs, going to prison, or winding up on welfare. Save a soul and chances are, you help keep a family intact with a hardworking dad, a nurturing and supportive mom, and well-disciplined kids who stay in school and get a good education.

At age 66, there’s only so many grains of sand left in my hourglass, and I intend to make the most of them.