Rep. Trey Gowdy, a tea party freshman, told GreenvilleOnline.com that he is frustrated by Washington politics and may not seek re-election because of the lack of fairness and civility in politics.
A Gowdy spokesman told The Daily Caller that he is inclined to run for a second term “so long as he believes he is doing a good job for the people he works for and whether progress is being made.”
Like dozens and dozens of other Republican congressmen, Gowdy has just passed the seven-month mark of his two-year term. He was also part of the South Carolina delegation that held strong in voting against raising the debt ceiling.
“The issues are challenging. The country is divided,” Gowdy explained to GreenvilleOnline.com. “And I miss home. I think that’s probably the best way to put it.”
“Rep. Gowdy rejects the notion that one should run for re-election until they are fired,” said Josh Dix, Gowdy’s communications director. “Instead he believes elected officials should engage in consistent self reflection and evaluation on whether they are being good stewards of the public trust.”
The political system in Washington has frustrated Gowdy, a former prosecutor, he said.
“I really did not have a frame of reference because I’ve never served in the legislature before,” he remarked. “I come from a system where there’s a referee and a jury that gives you immediate feedback on whether or not you have won the argument.”
“This system is different,” he said. “There is no referee. There’s more fairness in a court proceeding than there is in politics. There’s more civility in a criminal trial than there is in politics. So it’s been an adjustment.”
The grueling debt ceiling debate seems to be the prime example of what has frustrated Gowdy. He and his colleagues were roundly criticized for holding the country hostage by requiring substantial spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in exchange for raising the nation’s borrowing limit.
“The debt ceiling debate could have had a civil, frank, and honest discussion of the facts,” Dix noted. “It resulted in demagoguery instead of the potential that could have been.”
Gowdy represents South Carolina’s conservative 4th Congressional District. He defeated incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis last November in the Republican primary, part of a GOP wave in which it took over the House of Representatives.