“Despite this backlash, I truly believe I might win this election, but it would be an incredibly divisive election for both the Republican Party and for the people of the 23rd District, many of whom I have not ever represented,” he said Friday. “The last thing we need is an incredibly negative, half-truth filled media attack funded by millions of dollars of special interest money coming into our community around this issue of guns and violence and gun control.”
The new 23rd District strongly favors Republicans. Jacobs, who came to Congress following winning a special election in 2020, said that he will finish his “time as a 27th (District) member of Congress ’til the end of the year.”
“The fact that the majority of the Senate Republicans don’t want any of these proposals, even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable. We can’t fail the American people once more,” Biden said.
Jacobs was among the rare Republicans to break with party orthodoxy last week, when he told reporters that he would vote for legislation to ban assault rifles and body armor, as well as to limit the number of rounds in a gun’s magazine to 10.
“I can’t in good conscience sit back and say I didn’t try to do something,” he told reporters on May 27.
The backlash from Republicans and the Conservative Party in New York was immediate. A former ally said he was considering a primary run once morest Jacobs.
So far, 32 House Democrats are leaving Congress at the end of the term.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Melissa DePalo contributed to this report.