August 11, 2018

Indicted GOP Congressman Ends Reelection Bid

But will Republicans be able to replace Chris Collins?

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.)Bill Clark/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom via ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Embattled New York Congressman Chris Collins announced Saturday that he is suspending his reelection campaign—a move that comes several days after he was indicted on federal insider trading charges. Collins said in a statement that he will finish out his current term “to support President Trump’s agenda.”

According to prosecutors, the congressman, who was on the board of an Australian pharmaceutical company, passed insider information about a failed drug trial to his son. Collins’ son and others then allegedly sold their stock before its price plummeted, avoiding $768,000 in potential losses.

“I will also continue to fight the meritless charges brought against me and I look forward to having my good name cleared of any wrongdoing,” Collins said in his statement.

Collins has the distinction of being the first sitting lawmaker to endorse Donald Trump for president. The three-term congressman represents a heavily Republican district—Trump won by 24 points in 2016. After Collins’ indictment, the Cook Political Report quickly changed the district’s rating from solid Republican to likely Republican.

At this point, it’s not clear how easy it will be for Republicans to replace Collins on the ballot. New York state has especially strict rules limiting the situations in which a candidate can drop out. Basically, he’d have to die, run for another office, or leave the state, elections expert Jerry H. Goldfeder told the New York Times.

A Republican operative told CNN Saturday that the party might indeed nominate Collins for a town clerkship in order to remove him from the congressional ballot. A local GOP official, meanwhile, told Politico that the party had yet to finalize its plans, but “he noted Collins owns houses in Florida and Washington, DC.”

In an email to Mother Jones, however, Goldfeder said he believed it would be too late for Collins to withdraw from the race by moving out of state. “The only way he can be replaced is if the Republicans are brazen enough to run him for another office,” Goldfeder said. “He cannot move out of the state before Election Day.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are hoping that Collins’ opponent, Nate McMurray, can compete in the upstate New York district.

This story has been updated.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate