Mike Gallagher is a United States House of Representatives member from Wisconsin. A moderate Republican, he was elected from the state's 8th District. The District is based in Green Bay.
Gallagher also chairs the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. It is frequently shortened to the House Select Committee on China. Gallagher has been widely mentioned as a potential candidate in a statewide election. But it evidently will not be in 2024.
Rules out running for the United States Senate
Mike Gallagher says he won't run for the U.S. Senate in 2024, Wisconsin Public Radio and The Independent report. Tammy Baldwin currently holds the seat in question. Baldwin is a member of Democratic Senate leadership and was one of Joe Biden's preferred choices for vice president. She was re-elected to the Senate by a landslide in 2018.
Gallagher's interest in a potential Senate campaign has been speculated for some time. But for now, he seems content to stay in the House. He was particularly interested in his role as the Select Committee on China chairman.
To this point, no candidate has entered the 2024 Senate Republican primary in Wisconsin. Bryan Steil and Scott Walker were also considered top contenders for the nomination and opted out of running.
Steil is a centrist member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 1st District. He is the chairman of the Committee on House Administration. Walker is a former governor of Wisconsin.
Arguably, the two biggest favorites for the nomination are quite polarizing in Wisconsin. One is U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany from the state's 7th District.
Another is former Democratic Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.
He was first elected to Congress in 2016
Mike Gallagher graduated as his class' valedictorian from Santa Ana, California's Mater Dei High School. He earned degrees from Princeton University, the National Intelligence University and Georgetown University.
After receiving his first degree, Gallagher joined the United States Marine Corps.
He would serve under future Central Intelligence Agency Directory David Petraeus with the United States Central Command. Gallagher was also twice deployed to help in the Iraq War. He retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of captain.
Gallagher would be a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations staffer and then-Governor Walker. In 2016, Republican incumbent Reid Ribble was not running for re-election in the 8th District. Gallagher won the race to succeed him by a wide margin. He has been re-elected three times since then, also by significant margins.
Gallagher married actress Anne Horak in 2019. They have two children.
