On Tuesday, Rep. Paul Cook's chief of staff said the congressman would not seek re-election next year to California’s 8th District, making Cook the 16th Republican to retire from the House so far this cycle. Instead, Cook will seek an open seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, a race his team had previously said he was interested in.
Cook first won election to the House in 2012 after GOP Rep. Jerry Lewis announced his retirement. At the time a member of the state Assembly, Cook took just 15.3% in a 13-way top-two primary that June, barely trailing fellow Republican Gregg Imus, a tea partier who managed 15.6%. That fall, though, the very conservative Cook beat the even more strident Imus 57-43, in part by offering slightly greater appeal to Democratic voters.
Cook easily turned back Democratic opponents in 2014 and 2016, thanks to his district's deep-red lean: This sprawling seat, which hugs the Nevada border and takes in northern San Bernardino County and the High Desert, voted 55-40 for Donald Trump and 60-40 for Republican John Cox in 2018's gubernatorial race. Last year, after Democrats narrowly got squeezed out in the primary once more, Cook again faced another Republican in the general election, former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, and beat him 60-40. (Imus, incidentally, had worked for Donnelly in the legislature.)
Therefore, Republicans are overwhelmingly likely to retain this seat, though it doesn't say much about the party's prospects for regaining control of the House if members in safely red districts don't want to stick around. The San Bernardino board, by contrast, is in Republican hands, making it much more appealing to someone like Cook, who would earn a salary comparable to his congressional pay if he's elected supervisor—and enjoy a much shorter commute.
