Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI) is leaving Congress at the end of his term, he announced Monday morning, making him the third swing-district House Republican to declare his retirement in the past week alone.
Trott’s decision to leave is the latest sign that House Republicans are bracing for a brutal 2018 election — one that some of them aren’t so eager to face. And it opens up a competitive seat Democrats hope they can capture in a wave election.
President Trump won Trott’s suburban Detroit seat by 50% to 45%, about the same margin Mitt Romney carried it in 2008. But President Obama won it in 2008, and Democrats were already looking at Trott as a potential 2018 target.
“I have decided not to seek reelection in 2018. This was not an easy decision, but after careful consideration, I have decided that the best course for me is to spend more time with my family and return to the private sector,” Trott said in a statement.
Trott is already the fourth Republican from a competitive district to announce he’ll retire this year, and the third in just a week. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) announced earlier this year that she was done with Congress, and last week moderate Reps. Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Charlie Dent (R-PA) announced their retirements as well.
Republican strategists are bracing for more retirements in tough swing districts. Members tend to announce retirement plans either in early September, after they return from the August recess, or after the winter holidays after they have time to spend at home with their families.
“The [National Republican Congressional Committee] is looking forward to keeping his seat red in 2018. We will not let his hard work go to waste, and are confident this seat will remain under Republican control,” NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers (R-OH) said in a statement.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called his retirement “a tell-tale sign that running for re-election in Paul Ryan’s do-nothing Congress would have been an uphill climb not worth the effort” in a statement that promised to target the district next fall.
This story was updated at 1:20 p.m. EST.
Sounds like all the time spent fundraising isn’t yielding much fruit and Trott doesn’t want to spend more of his great wealth defending a seat that he likely won’t keep.
It must be tough to run on a non-existent record. Look for more swing district 'pubs needing to spend more time with their families.
Rats and sinking ship scenario.
"Trott & Trott makes his foreclosure money by employing a system known as “Dual Tracking” in order to foreclose on a homeowner. Dual Tracking is where the foreclosure mill or mortgage servicer will convince the homeowner that they are working to keep them in their home while moving ahead with foreclosure proceedings. In other words it’s a “Bait and Switch” tactic.
Trott ran into some serious trouble last year when his firm was fired by JPMorgan Chase on a dual tracking case involving Jeff Reed, a retired Green Beret and his autistic son from Northern Michigan. Trott refused to honor a loan modification his firm negotiated on behalf of JPMorgan Chase and then began foreclosure proceeding against Jeff Reed. JPMorgan Chase fired Trott from the case when JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s was flooded with calls from international media about Trott’s rogue attempt to foreclose on an American hero.
101 year old Texana Hollis in a homeless shelter having being callously being evicted and placed on the curb by contractors of David Trott.
101 year old Texana Hollis after being callously evicted and placed on the curb by contractors of David Trott.
Trott also stirred up international outrage two years ago when his firm callously and unmercifully evicted wheel chair bound 101-year old Texana Hollis from her home in the rain and left her on the curb with her possessions. Hollis was only able to move back into her home after novelist and sports writer Mitch Albom’s charity, S.A.Y. Detroit purchased the house from HUD and rehabilitated it to accommodate Mrs. Hollis’ wheel chair."
They’re dropping like flies. Who knew even they couldn’t stand the stink?
I always hate them when they denigrate rats for abandoning a sinking ship. The reality is that rats since they live in the holds are the first to realize that the ship is not safe and they do not see any point in risking their lives in such vessel just so the shipowner (who is not on board either) squeezes more profits out of the piece of junk.
What’s unpardonable is the ship captain that insists on sailing such a ship once the rats already warned him that the ship was sinking.