Chris Jacobs, a first-term US representative from suburban Buffalo, New York, said he decided to step down to avoid “an incredibly divisive election” for the Republican Party.
A week ago, in the wake of two massacres, Chris Jacobs spoke out in favor of a federal ban on assault weapons and other gun control measures. Authorities say a white gunman killed 10 black people inside a supermarket on May 14 in a racially motivated attack, and a gunman killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in another attack Uvalde, Texas, May 24.
“This event had a profound impact on me,” Jacobs told the Buffalo News, referring to the Buffalo shooting.
The reaction was immediate. Gun advocacy groups posted his office and cellphone phone numbers on the internet and local party leaders began to withdraw their support, The New York Times reported.
“The last thing we need is an incredibly negative media attack, filled with half-truths, funded by millions of dollars in special-interest money, coming to our community around this issue. guns, gun violence and gun control,” Jacobs told reporters on Friday, after announcing his withdrawal.
Jacobs was elected to Congress in New York’s 27th District two years ago with the support of the National Rifle Association, but now sits in the redesigned 23rd District.
The Republican candidate will be chosen in a primary election on August 23, before the general election on November 8, in which the entire House of Representatives will be decided.
Republicans are poised to regain control of the Democrats in the tightly-divided House, as the party that controls the White House traditionally loses seats in Congress in midterm elections.