California Rep. Devin Nunes will resign to head up Trump media company
Rep. Devin Nunes’ 10th term in Congress will be his last, as the California Republican announced Monday that he will retire at the end of the year to lead the media company being started by former President Donald Trump.
Nunes will leave the U.S. House, after being “presented with a new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in,” he said in a statement on Instagram.
Trump Media Technology Group announced Monday that Nunes will be its CEO.
“I will deeply miss being your congressman. It’s been the honor of a lifetime to represent you, and I thank you for the trust you put in me through all these years,” Nunes wrote on Instagram.
Nunes represents California’s 22nd Congressional District which covers Tulare and Fresno counties in the Republican-leaning San Joaquin Valley. He assured his supporters that he does not plan to disappear from the public eye.
filed a lawsuit that accused Twitter of “shadow-banning conservatives” – including Nunes – while profiting from abusive behavior and language allegedly perpetrated by liberal and left-wing Twitter accounts, including @DevinCow and @DevinNunesMom, both of which are listed as defendants. In June 2020, a judge ruled Twitter could not be sued, citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Advantage in district has slimmed
Nunes’ close relationship with Trump has cut into his popularity in the district. While Trump won Nunes’ district in 2016, his victory margin was a slim 8 points, winning 53% to 41% over Hilary Clinton.
In 2018 and 2020, Nunes faced tough challenges from Democrats Andrew Janz and Phil Arballo, cutting Nunes’ wins to single digits.
A proposed California redistricting plan is not helpful for Nunes.
According to the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman, the new district lines mean Nunes will go from representing a district Trump carried by 5 percentage points to a district President Joe Biden carried by 9 percentage points. FiveThirtyEight’s redistricting tracker estimates that the “partisan lean” of the district favors Democrats by roughly 5 percentage points.