US Rep. Holt, D-NJ, says he won’t seek re-election
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Associated Press
FILE In this Thursday, July 18, 2013 file photograph, U.S. Rep. Rush Holt listens to a question during a neighborhood meeting in a home in Trenton, N.J. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014, Holt said he will not seek re-election in November and will retire from Congress
when his term ends in January. The Democrat who represents central New
Jersey's 12th District announced his decision with an email to
constituents. (AP Photo/Mel Evans,file)
Holt, who represents central New Jersey’s 12th District, announced his decision in an email to constituents.
“There is no hidden motive for my decision,” he wrote. “As friends who have worked with me know, I have never thought that the primary purpose of my work was re-election and I have never intended to make service in the House my entire career. For a variety of reasons, personal and professional, all of them positive and optimistic, the end of this year seems to me to be the right time to step aside and ask the voters to select the next representative.”
His email didn’t say what he would do after he leaves the House. His chief of staff said he wouldn’t be available for interviews Tuesday.
Holt, 65, holds a doctorate in physics and spent most of his career in academia - including as assistant director of Princeton University’s plasma physics laboratory - before he won a House seat in 1998.
He presents himself as a teacher and a scientist first and a politician second, and it’s not uncommon in his district to see bumper stickers that say, “My Congressman IS a rocket scientist.” When he ran for the U.S. Senate last year, his biggest campaign event was dubbed “Geek Out” and was more scholarly panel than political rally. One of his main claims to fame was beating the IBM computer Watson at “Jeopardy!”
President Barack Obama said in a statement Tuesday that the research physicist had put science - and his constituents - at the forefront during his 15 years in office.
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