Republicans are calling on Congressman Mike Gallagher to resign from Congress early in order to trigger a special election in his Wisconsin House district. If Mr. Gallagher fails to step aside before April 2, the seat will not be filled until 2025. 

Mr. Gallagher announced on Friday that he would resign his seat effective April 19, citing family conversations. His staff will continue to work to provide constituent services for the Wisconsin’s Eighth District, but the office will be lacking a voting member in Mr. Gallagher. 

“What Mike Gallagher did yesterday was intentional, purposeful, and puts our entire majority at risk,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said in an interview on Saturday. “I think he should be expelled … before he’s allowed to just walk out of Congress at a date of his choosing where his district doesn’t get to replace him until [the] next Congress. I think that is completely wrong.”

“Our majority is too important to throw away and the horrible, dishonest, and completely irresponsible actions of many in our Republican majority have led us to where we are. When people leave early, it’s a math game,” she says. 

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk called the Wisconsin representative’s move “calculated.”

“Gallagher could leave now, and allow his safe Republican seat to be filled quickly. Instead, he is deliberately leaving on a timeline that will leave it empty until November, leaving the GOP majority even smaller and making a Democrat House takeover a real possibility,” Mr. Kirk says. “Gallagher is a traitor to his party and to the people who voted for him. What a spiteful, repulsive creature.”

Another activist who is close with President Trump, Alex Bruesewitz, is also calling Mr. Gallagher a traitor for his decision. Mr. Bruesewitz is a native of Wisconsin’s Eighth District, and is considering running for the seat himself. He was urged to challenge Mr. Gallagher in the GOP primary this year before Mr. Gallagher announced his intention to not run for reelection. 

“On Monday, pick up your phone, call Mike Gallagher’s office, and demand he resign before April 2nd,” Mr. Bruesewitz said at a recent meeting in the district. “If he resigns before April 2nd, what happens? We get a special election and you will not be voiceless in Washington for nine months.”

“I think it’s disgusting that he wants to leave you without representation,” he said. 

Mr. Gallagher is just the latest lawmaker to leave the chamber earlier than anticipated. In February, he announced he would not run for reelection only to decide on Friday to leave Washington before his term ended. Congressman Ken Buck is doing the same, but resigned early enough to trigger the special election process in his western Colorado district.