Ken Buck, iconoclastic conservative, won't run for reelection to the House

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said on Wednesday he would not run for reelection after several recent breaks from his party.

Buck said on MSNBC that he has "been disappointed with our inability in Congress to deal with major issues, and I'm also disappointed that the Republican Party continues to ... rely on this lie that the 2020 election was stolen and rely on the Jan. 6 narrative and the political prisoners from Jan. 6."

The conservative Coloradan added: "If we're going to solve difficult problems, we've got to deal with some very unpleasant truths or lies and make sure we project to the public what the truth is."

Notably, Buck voted for Speaker Mike Johnson, who was a leading architect of the legal strategy behind GOP objections to certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.

Buck told POLITICO in August he planned to run for reelection during an interview in his sprawling Colorado district, despite local rumblings he would not. He was one of just two House Freedom Caucus members who voted to certify Biden's win.

In 2010, Buck came up just short in a Senate bid against now-Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). He served as Colorado's state party chair from 2019 through 2021, and has comfortably won election to his House seat since 2015.

However, he grew less comfortable in recent years with his party's swing to the right — notably opposing the proposed elevation of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to House speaker. A local landlord evicted him from office space following his refusal to back the Ohio conservative for the gavel.

Buck has also been critical of the Republican-led push to impeach President Joe Biden, arguing he didn't "see the evidence" to support the push in September.

He's the second House Republican — after Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) — to announce they would not seek reelection on Wednesday.