Texas Rep. Michael McCaul will not seek reelection in 2026

Jessica Wehrman, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 14, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, a former chair of both the House Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees, said Sunday that he will not seek another term in Congress.

The longtime Republican congressman, currently serving his 11th term representing Texas’ 10th District, made the announcement on ABC News’ “This Week,” telling host Martha Raddatz that he was “looking for a new challenge.”

A gregarious backslapper considered a defender of traditional party values in the mold of the Reagan and Bush years of foreign policy, McCaul chaired the Homeland Security Committee from 2013 through 2019. He was the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs panel from 2019 through 2023 and then chairman from 2023 through 2025. He also served as the chairman of the China Task Force, later known as House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Before his first election to Congress in 2004, McCaul served as chief of counterterrorism and national security in the U.S. attorney’s office in Austin. Earlier in his career, he was a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s public integrity section.

McCaul leaves behind a safe Republican seat that stretches from North Austin to suburban Houston. Over his decadeslong career, his only competitive races came in 2018 and 2020 when Democrat Mike Siegel held him to single-digit wins. The district became more Republican after the lines were redrawn following the 2020 census — Trump carried the seat by 25 points last fall, according to calculations by The Downballot, as McCaul was winning an 11th term by 30 points. That partisanship did not change much after Texas Republicans approved a new congressional map last month; the redrawn 10th District would have backed Trump by 23 points, according to calculations by Inside Elections.

McCaul is the third Texas Republican to announce his upcoming departure from the House in recent weeks: Rep. Chip Roy is running for state attorney general, while Rep. Morgan Luttrell said Thursday he had decided against a third term. Longtime Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, meanwhile, has said he won’t run for reelection if the courts do not overturn the new GOP-drawn congressional map. Under the new lines, Doggett was drawn into the same Austin-area seat as Democratic colleague Greg Casar.

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—Andrew Menezes contributed to this report.