Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup to retire from Congress at end of term

A longtime Greater Cincinnati congressman will not be running for reelection.

Republican U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he will retire from Congress when his term expires at the end of next year, citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and two children.

“I work in a place where a lot of people want to be somebody, but a surgeon mentor of mine once said, ‘You don’t have to be somebody somewhere else as long as you’re somebody at home,’” he said. "Sadly, all too often the frantic pace of Washington has kept me away from our home. I'm ready to change that."

Wenstrup, a doctor of podiatric medicine and colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, was elected to the U.S. House in 2012. He serves Ohio's 2nd Congressional District.

Until 2022, his district covered eastern portions of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, including where he lived in Cincinnati's Columbia Tusculum neighborhood. The district now stretches from Clermont County to Ohio's southeastern border with West Virginia, extending to parts or all of 16 southern Ohio counties. Wenstrup now lists his residence as Hillsboro, in Highland County, where he owns a farm.

He has recently made headlines for his work on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, leading an inquiry into the pandemic’s origins and the government’s response.

During his last 14 months in office, Wenstrup plans to continue his work on the subcommittee, which he says will help the country “predict, prepare for, and possibly prevent the next pandemic.” Some experts, however, have criticized the subcommittee’s work as a “political stunt.”

As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, he has raised questions about the government downplaying the theories that COVID leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Republicans on the intelligence committee released a minority report in December 2022 in which they expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation the virus came from animals sold at a market in Wuhan.

Wenstrup was also present in June 2017 when a gunman opened fire while a group of Republican lawmakers was practicing in Alexandria, Virginia, for a charity baseball game.

He was credited with rushing to help Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who was injured in the shooting. Wenstrup, who served as a military surgeon, cut through Scalise’s pant leg to get to his wound to assess the damage and try to stop the bleeding.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Brad Wenstrup: Longtime congressman to retire at end of term