Democratic Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey announced today that he will not run for re-election in November. He is the third New Jersey representative to decide to not run again in three months.
Holt made the announcement in a lengthy Facebook post. The former physics teacher said that there was “no hidden motive” for the decision. “For a variety of reasons, personal and professional, all of them positive and optimistic, the end of this year seems to me to be the right time to step aside and ask the voters to select the next representative,” Holt explained.
Holt represented the 12th district of New Jersey for eight terms. USA Today notes that he was the only Quaker in the House. He is also known as one of two Congressmen to appear on Jeopardy!. The other is Arizona Sen. John McCain. His father was a senator for West Virginia from 1935 to 1941 and his mother was the first female Secretary of State for West Virginia.
According to The New York Times, Holt said that there is “a certain level of dysfunction” in Congress, but said that there are still successes there, like the debt-ceiling extension.
Last month, Democrat Rob Andrews announced his decision to leave Congress. Republican Rep. Jon Runyan decided to leave in November.
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
