Duncan Hunter will resign seat after guilty plea

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said Friday he will soon resign his seat in Congress, bowing to the inevitable after pleading guilty this week to illegally using campaign finance funds for personal matters.

In a statement, Hunter said he would resign “shortly after the holidays,” but the sixth-term Republican did not specify a date. The House is expected to return from its holiday recess on Jan. 7.

“Shortly after the holidays, I will resign from Congress,” Hunter said. “It has been an honor to serve the people of California’s 50th District, and I greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me over these last 11 years.”

Since Hunter’s guilty plea on Tuesday, congressional leaders have been circling to seek his resignation, and the House ethics committee sent him a letter Thursday warning that he would run afoul of House rules if he voted on the floor following his criminal conviction.

Hunter’s departure completes a long fall for the San Diego Republican, a veteran who succeeded his father in the seat. His career unraveled as questions about his campaign spending spurred a federal investigation, leading Hunter, 42, to agree with prosecutors this week that he and his wife had channeled some $150,000 toward themselves.

The mounting legal troubles cost Hunter his clout in Washington, as Republican leadership stripped him of committee assignments and contributed to a Democrat coming within a few points of unseating him in 2018. Sensing his weakness, multiple Republicans had already declared they would seek his seat in 2020.

While Hunter’s exit was widely anticipated after his guilty plea, his formal decision to forfeit his seat helped clarify the 50th District landscape — and drew an attack from a Republican contender, former San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio, who accused Hunter of manipulating his resignation timeline to avoid a special election for the duration of his term. California’s primary election filing deadline was Friday, meaning it’s at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s discretion whether to call a special election.

“The voters of the 50th District deserve having their voice back in Congress as soon as possible, and only a special election can give the voters a voice again,” DeMaio said in a statement.

DeMaio is vying for the seat with former Rep. Darrell Issa, who is trying to return to Congress after retiring from a more competitive seat that has shifted rapidly toward Democrats. Ammar Campa-Najjar, the Democrat who lost narrowly to Hunter in 2018, is running again but would face a tall task against a Republican without Hunter’s baggage given the district's heavily Republican makeup.

“I’m confident that we will outperform in the early phases of this election and go on to win the general election,” Campa-Najjar said in a statement. “I’ll stack my lived, working-class experience against the other coastal elitist, millionaire candidates any day.”