House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry Won't Run for Re-Election in 2024
McHenry has served in the House since January 2005.
Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a Republican, has today announced that he will not seek an eleventh term representing the state’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He made the announcement in a statement released on X (formerly Twitter) today.
McHenry, 48, is the 31st retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives for the upcoming 2024 cycle - 20 Democrats and 11 Republicans. Notably, he is the second North Carolina Republican not to seek re-election to the House in 2024 - joining Dan Bishop, who is instead running for North Carolina Attorney General.
McHenry has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 2005. North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District currently covers all of Alexander, Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Iredell and Lincoln Counties and parts of Caldwell, Gaston and Rutherford Counties.
However, the state legislature earlier this year redrew its congressional map with a partisan gerrymander to ensure several Republican pickups in its House delegation. The safely Republican 10th District will remain so despite ceding some of its heavily Republican areas to neighboring districts to make them reliably red too.
Before Congress, McHenry served in the North Carolina House of Representatives for one term between January 2003 to January 2005. In 2004, he entered the Republican primary to succeed nine-term incumbent Cass Ballenger after he announced his retirement. McHenry secured the Republican nomination after prevailing in the runoff against Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman by only 85 votes. McHenry has always easily prevailed in every general election for the seat.
Since January 2019, McHenry has served as the top Republican on the House Committee on Financial Services. He was the Ranking Member from January 2019 to January 2023. He has chaired the committee during the 118th Congress. Moreover, he served as Speaker Pro Tempore of the U.S. House of Representatives from October 3-25, 2023 after Representative Kevin McCarthy of California was removed from the role.
No candidates had announced campaigns for the Republican or Democratic nominations before McHenry’s retirement today. In the hours since, Pat Harrigan - the 2022 Republican nominee for the state’s 14th Congressional District - revealed that he was ending his 2024 campaign for that seat (newly gerrymandered to now elect a Republican) to instead run here.