Powerful GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen to retire

Herb Jackson | The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record

Show Caption Hide Caption Rally outside Frelinghuysen office in Morristown (June 2017) The New Jersey Sierra Club joins constituents from the 11th district and other groups to urge Congressman Frelinghuysen to stand up to President Trump’s attack on the environment. (June 2017)

New Jersey Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen announced Monday he will retire rather than seek another term in November, when he was expected to face the toughest campaign of his career.

Frelinghuysen, 71, became chairman of the House Appropriations Committee last year, a post that made him more beholden to the House Republican leadership at a time his suburban 11th District was the site of regular protests urging him to resist the policies of President Trump.

Frelinghuysen is the latest Republican to not seek re-election this year. He becomes the 18th Republican to step aside in the House. Three Republican senators have said they will not seek re-election.

Frelinghuysen initially opposed the Republican-crafted American Health Care Act, but then supported a revised version even as he said he hoped the Senate would make it better. In December, he opposed the sweeping tax overhaul that was one of the major legislative accomplishments of the GOP Congress and the Trump administration.

A 12-term incumbent from Harding Township, N.J., Frelinghuysen is part of a family that can trace its roots in Congress back to the founding of the United States.

More: For Democrats, path to majority runs through New York, New Jersey

More: Democratic PAC End Citizens United names 'Big Money 20' targets for 2018

“I have worked in a bipartisan manner, not just in times of crisis but always, because I believe it best serves my constituents, my state and our country," Frelinghuysen said in a statement.

"My father reminded me often that we are temporary stewards of the public trust. I have sincerely endeavored to earn that trust every day and I thank my constituents and my home state of New Jersey for the honor to serve and I will continue to do so to the best of my abilities through the end of my term.”

Several Democrats had stepped forward saying they wanted to challenge Frelinghuysen, including former prosecutor and Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill of Montclair, N.J., who had the backing of the party leadership in the four counties covered by the 11th District.

The list: Here are the members of Congress retiring at the end of 2018

Though the district has been Republican leaning, Trump beat Clinton by less than 1 percentage point and is dominated by the kinds of well-educated, high-income suburbs that polls have shown have turned away from Trump.

“After ducking his constituents for months, Representative Frelinghuysen has now denied them the chance to throw him out," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement. "His retirement comes as no surprise given his community’s disgust with this Republican Congress, which spent nearly all of last year throwing our healthcare system into chaos."

Follow Herb Jackson on Twitter: @HerbNJDC