DENVER — Colorado Congressman Ken Buck announced Wednesday he won’t seek reelection in the House of Representatives next year, citing his party’s repeated lies about the 2020 election that have now set the nation “on a collision course with reality.”
“Americans are rightfully concerned about our nation's future and are looking to Republicans in Washington for a course correction. But their hope for Republicans to take decisive action may be in vain,” said Rep. Buck, the fifth-term Republican who represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, late Wednesday morning.
He went on to say, “Republican leaders are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, describing January 6 as an unguided tour of the Capitol, and asserting that the ensuing prosecutions are a weaponization of our justice system.”
“These insidious narratives breed widespread cynicism and erode Americans confidence in the rule of law,” he added.
Buck, who made the decision “after careful consideration and much prayer,” said he was grateful for those who supported him over the years as he fought what he called “policies (on the left) that have had real world consequences.”
The staunch conservative, who last month revealed he was the target of multiple death threats for voting against Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as House Speaker as Republicans sought to end a weekslong cycle of infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, said it was impossible for the GOP to confront its problems and offer a course correction for the future “while being obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.”
He called the trend among his peers “a significant departure from the enduring principles of conservatism” and decried the Republican Party of today for “ignoring self-evident truths about the rule of law and limited government in exchange for self-serving lies.”
“I made the decision to leave Congress because tough votes are being replaced by social media status,” Buck said, adding it was time to “stop feeding popular narratives and start addressing the long-term solutions.”
Buck, who has represented most of the rural Eastern Plains and parts of the Front Range such as Loveland, Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock and Parker since 2014, won reelection in 2022 with 61% of the vote. Former President Donald Trump won Buck’s district with 57% of the vote in 2020.
“To my friends in Colorado: Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve our nation and to serve you,” Buck said in closing remarks. “Being your representative in Washington, D.C., has been the greatest professional thrill and highest honor of my life.”
In a major reversal last week, Buck — who said he opposed Jim Jordan's bid for speaker over his election denialism — backed Mike Johnson, another 2020 election denier, arguing that Johnson did not engage in efforts to overturn the election at the same level that Jordan did.
