By Olivia Beavers

WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. Don Bacon has made up his mind: the centrist Nebraska lawmaker is leaving Congress after this term. But he's still got a big decision to make on President Trump's agenda, after years of scraps with the president and the MAGA movement.

His announcement that he won't run for reelection comes as the party has just days to pass the president's tax and spending bill ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline. Bacon, who is considered a pivotal vote, says he is waiting to see if what passes out of the Senate before he decides what to do.

"I'm not a 'yes' necessarily," said Bacon in a wide-ranging interview about his decision to leave Congress. He argues that the Senate's initial text on Republicans' "one big, beautiful bill" was worse than the version he helped pass out of the House. The Senate released a revised version in recent days and is hoping to quickly approve it and send it back to the House, where the GOP has a thin 220-212 majority and party leaders need every vote they can get.

"It'lll come down to: Does the bad outweigh the good, or the good outweigh the bad by the time it's done?" He said he had concerns about the Medicaid provisions and the rollback of clean energy tax credits.

Bacon, 61 years old, has found success running in the middle, winning re-election in one of the most competitive seats in the country since he flipped Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District in 2016. He is also one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, according to the Lugar Center's bipartisan index.

After he leaves the Hill, Bacon wants to work to restore more traditional Republican views to the GOP, and is getting more involved with a group called Legacy Republicans, which advocates for candidates who embrace views espoused by former President Ronald Reagan.

"I think there's a lot of Republicans who feel like me: We're divided and we're becoming increasingly more protectionist and isolationist, and Republicans learned in the 1930s that doesn't work," he said. "I don't know that our party's going the wrong way, but we're surely divided."

Bacon said he wasn't leaving Congress due to fears about reelection, heading into a cycle where Democrats are hoping to claw back the House after two years of complete GOP control of Washington. Election watchers say control of the House is up for grabs, with Bacon's seat again among the most vulnerable.

Instead, Bacon said his main reason is his desire to be with his family, including his eight grandchildren. After almost 10 years of traveling to D.C. for work and campaigning, he said he is ready to be home.

"A lot of people think maybe I'm not running because it is an off year and historically it is harder on the party in power. But I feel like I'm in as good a position politically as I've ever been," Bacon said. "It also requires having a lot of gas in the tank," he said, adding: "After this last November, I just felt like my gas was empty."

Bacon, who served nearly 30 years in the Air Force and retired at the rank of Brigadier General, cited dreams of one day being a cabinet official like Defense Secretary or Director of National Intelligence -- but not in this administration.

"I don't think Trump would ever want me -- I disagree with him probably too much," he said.

Bacon won reelection last year despite voters in his district backing Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris over Trump, fending off his challenger by less than two percentage points. He represents just one of three GOP-held seats that Harris won. His biggest margin was in 2020, winning by just under five points in the year Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Bacon says the most heated political moment for him was during the intraparty fight following the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023, in which Bacon joined about two dozen other Republicans in blocking Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) from the speakership. Conservative grassroots activists mobilized to attack him and allies.

There are times Bacon agrees with Trump, like on his authorization of attacks on Iran. And there are times when he doesn't agree with Trump, particularly on Ukraine. He voted to certify Biden's electoral win in 2020, and he backed the Biden infrastructure law.

In May 2022, Trump went after Bacon at a rally in Nebraska just one week before the GOP primary, calling Bacon "bad news." He also praised, but didn't ultimately endorse, Bacon's challenger. In 2024, Bacon received Trump's backing in his general-election race.

Bacon said he decided to announce his plans so that House GOP leadership can recruit the right candidate. He informed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and other GOP leaders on Friday.

Bacon says there are two good GOP candidates -- friends of his -- who are looking to run: Brinker Harding, a city councilor from Omaha, and Brett Lindstrom, a state senator. Harding declined to comment on whether he plans to run but said he would make an announcement Tuesday.

Chris Chappelear, the former chairman of the Nebraska Federation of Young Republicans, was considering launching a bid, according to people familiar with his plans.

Write to Olivia Beavers at Olivia.Beavers@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 30, 2025 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

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