Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, announced Friday that he will not be seeking re-election to Congress when his term ends, citing “death threat against” him, as well as “false and defamatory rumors against me and my family.”
Rosendale’s announcement comes weeks after he suspended this short-lived campaign for the Republican nomination for a US Senate seat in Montana when Donald Trump endorsed his opponent, ex-Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy.
After dropping out of the Senate race, Rosendale said he would run for his House seat again but has now decided to call it quits.
In a statement posted to X/Twitter, Rosendale said since he announced plans to run for re-election to his House seat, he has been “forced to have law enforcement visit my children because of a death threat against me and false and defamatory rumors against me and my family.”
“This has taken a serious toll on me, and my family. Additionally, it has caused a serious disruption to the election of the next representative for MT-02,” Rosendale continued. “To me, public service has truly always been about serving, not titles or positions of power.”
“The current attacks have made it impossible for me to focus on my work to serve you. So, in the best interest of my family and the community, I am withdrawing from the House race and will not be seeking office,” he added.
Rosendale did not elaborate on the alleged threats or allegations against him, but former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) claimed in a podcast interview that Rosendale ended his Senate bid because he slept with a 20-year-old staffer and got her pregnant.
“I think [the GOP] caucus may lose a member in the next couple days,” Heitkamp said in an interview on the “Talking Feds with Harry Litman” podcast, according to Politico. “Just to gossip a little bit: There’s a reason why Rosendale backed out of that Senate race — the rumor is he impregnated a 20-year-old staff person.”
Rosendale has denied the allegation and threaten legal action against Heitkamp.
Rosendale was elected to Congress in 2020. Last October, he was one of the eight Republicans who voted to remove former congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker.
