Veteran Republican Rep. Darrell Issa announced Friday that he will not run for reelection in his newly configured congressional district in San Diego and Riverside counties.

“This decision has been on my mind for a while and I didn’t make it lightly,” Issa said in a statement, arguing that he would have won the 2026 race based on his campaign’s polling and his support from President Trump among others. “But after a quarter-century in Congress — and before that, a quarter-century in business — it’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges.”

Issa called serving in Congress “the honor of my life,” and highlighted his work for constituents such as 100-year-old retired Navy fighter pilot Royce Williams, who was awarded a congressional medal of honor during Trump’s State of the Union address. “… every day my teams in Washington and California have worked to deliver for our constituents,” Issa said.

Issa, among the wealthiest members of Congress, began telling people earlier this week that he would retire from Congress, sources said.

He had an outsized impact on state and national politics, according to political experts and strategists, including funding the successful 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis, which ushered Arnold Schwarzenegger into office, and his work as the head of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during high-profile investigations of the Obama administration.

“Darrell Issa was a constant and consequential presence in the Republican Party in California without ever being its most prominent leader,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “He’s the person probably most responsible for the recall of Gray Davis going forward, but then he got boxed out of the race when Arnold Schwarzenegger got in. He became one of the most prominent protagonists of Barack Obama. But that never elevated him to statewide prominence or statewide office in his own state.”

National and state Republicans lauded Issa.

“We are grateful for Congressman Darrell Issa’s decades of dedicated service to the people of California and our nation,” said Christian Martinez, the spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Throughout his career, he has embodied the spirit of public service, championed our military, and fought tirelessly for a stronger America.”

Kevin Spillane, a San Diego-area GOP political strategist, said Issa substantially enhanced his national profile during the investigation into the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, that resulted in the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

“He’s been a national figure pretty much since he has been in Congress,” Spillane said. “He was of the people most vocal on Benghazi. He has been a national foil to Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was a major statewide figure in terms of funding the recall that allowed Arnold Schwarzenegger to be elected. He has been a major figure in San Diego County politics for more than two decades. He’s an important member of Congress.

“It is a loss for California Republicans in terms of our congressional delegation,” Spillane said. “It’s a loss for national Republicans in terms of losing a significant figure in the Republican caucus.”

Issa’s move was prompted by the reconfiguration of his congressional district under Proposition 50, a redistricting plan voters passed in November to counter President Trump’s efforts to push GOP-led states to redraw their congressional lines to favor Republicans.

“Rep. Issa is unfortunately a victim of his own inaction,” said Paul Mitchell, the Democratic strategist who drew the new congressional districts voters approved in November that made Issa’s reelection prospects shaky. “Privately all the California Republican incumbents knew it was a mistake, and yet the veterans with all the chairmanships and power didn’t speak out.”

Issa wasn’t the only Republican member of California’s congressional delegation whose reelection plans shifted on Friday because of Proposition 50.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Roseville) made a surprise announcement Friday evening that he would run for reelection as an independent candidate.

Voter-approved redistricting last year fractured Kiley’s huge Northern California district into six pieces. Earlier this week he announced he would run in the district that includes his hometown and other Sacramento-area suburbs but has a nine-point Democratic voter registration advantage.

Kiley described his decision to run as a no party preference candidate as a way to “fight back and protect our democracy” from “partisan games.”

“It is no secret I’ve been frustrated, at times disgusted, by the hyper-partisanship in Congress. In the last year it’s led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, a massive increase in healthcare costs, and of course, a pointless redistricting war,” Kiley wrote on the social media site X.

Shortly after Issa announced his retirement Friday evening, Democrats were quick to celebrate and boast about the party’s prospects of winning the seat and increasing its ranks in California’s congressional delegation.

“After over two decades of disastrous representation, Darrell Issa is once again running for the exits — and good riddance,” said Anna Elsasser, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Issa abandoning his voters now is the clearest sign yet that Republicans know he can’t win on his record of skyrocketing prices, gutting healthcare, and looking out for himself and wealthy special interests above all else.”

Issa endorsed San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond to replace him. His supervisorial districts includes more than a quarter of the new district.

Desmond has been running in a neighboring congressional district that straddles Orange and San Diego counties that is currently represented by Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano). Though the Levin district has been considered competitive, Proposition 50 made it more safely Democratic. Desmond withdrew from that race and filed to run in Issa’s district on Thursday, according to the San Diego County registrar of voters.

Issa, 72, has represented various San Diego-area districts in Congress for 23 years. Issa’s once solidly Republican district had been trending more moderate in recent years.

Democratic registered voters outnumber Republicans by more than four percentage points in Issa’s new district, which spans San Diego and Riverside counties and was reshaped to include liberal communities such as Palm Springs, according to the nonpartisan California Target Book. Issa’s current congressional district had a 12-percentage-point GOP edge in voter registration in 2024.
As soon as the new districts were approved, speculation began swirling about Issa‘s reelection plans. Some of his supporters in Texas urged him to move there to run in a GOP-friendly Dallas-area district, but he said in December that he declined and would instead seek reelection in California.

“I believe that the people of San Diego County, who have elected me so many times, will, in fact, regardless of registration, vote for me,” Issa told the Fox affiliate in San Diego in December. “This is my home, and I’m going to fight for it.”

Several Democrats had already announced plans to challenge Issa, including San Diego City Council member Marni Lynn von Wilpert and repeat candidate Ammar Campa-Najar.

Issa, a high school dropout and Army veteran, made his fortune by purchasing a struggling electronics business in 1980 and transforming it into the Viper car alarm system, with Issa’s voice warning potential thieves to “stand back.”

Times staff writer Nicole Nixon contributed to this report.