Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), a top Republican ringleader who fought Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as he sought the Speaker’s gavel, will not run for reelection, according to reports.
Granger, 80, had begun taking heat in her Fort Worth district for opposing Jordan and faced a primary challenge. She voted against the Republican nominee Jordan on the first ballot and continued to oppose him until Jordan was stripped of his nomination by a Republican conference secret ballot.
“I think she’s tired,” a source told the Fort Worth Report, which broke the news, citing “five well-placed sources.”
Granger denied to the outlet that she had made a decision yet on her future but indicated an announcement might come soon.
“She’s the most powerful Texan we’ve got,” Democrat lobbyist and former Texas lieutenant governor Ben Barnes told the Report. “I hope she runs.”
The Texas Congresswoman, first elected during the Clinton administration, has faced speculation that she had begun to slip mentally.
When casting her vote for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) for Speaker, a ballot in which Johnson won the support of all voting Republicans, Granger initially voted for Mike Rogers before seemingly realizing her mistake and switching to Johnson.
Granger chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, which oversees federal spending and whose members disproportionately opposed the fiscally conservative Jordan’s candidacy for Speaker.
The United States national debt has ballooned by $28 trillion since Granger arrived in Congress and was appointed to the committee.
The popular Jordan continues to chair both the Judiciary and Weaponization Committees and is considered perhaps the most powerful House committee chair in at least a generation.
Update: Granger has now officially announced her decision not to run for reelection:
Follow Bradley Jaye on Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.