GOP lawmaker breaks term-limit pledge, will run again

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is flipping on a campaign promise to serve only six years in the House by announcing he will run for another term.

In a video posted by his campaign, Mullin said he and his family originally only expected a six-year run when he first launched a bid for the House in 2012.

But after feeling frustrated during his first two terms trying to work with the Obama administration, Mullin said he wanted to stick around while President Trump is in office.

{mosads}“We looked at each other and we said, ‘We’re running again,’ ” Mullin said of a conversation with his wife, Christie.

“We understand that people are going to be upset. And we get that. We understand it,” Mullin said. “I’m not hiding from that. Because we did say we were going to serve six years.”

Mullin appeared jointly in the video with his wife, who said they initially worried that a tenure in Congress would negatively impact their family and plumbing business.

“We truly felt like we would serve six years and have to come back and patch together our family, like pick our business up,” Christie Mullin said.

But their worst fears never came to fruition, she said.

“Our kids said, ‘Dad, yes, you have to run again!’ ” she said.

Markwayne Mullin attributed his decision to having a better understanding of how politics works and said his position has simply evolved over time.

“I don’t think there’s one person that’s never changed their mind six years apart from each other or how they would approach things,” Mullin said.

Mullin recently drew headlines when he said during a constituent town hall meeting that it’s “bullcrap” to say that taxpayers pay his salary.

“I pay for myself. I paid enough taxes before I got here and continue to through my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go,” Mullin said.

At least six House members, five Republicans and one Democrat, have introduced legislation in the current session of Congress to impose term limits.

Bills offered by Reps. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) would all limit senators to serving only two terms.

The limits on House members in each of the proposals range from three or four consecutive terms up to six.

– This story was updated at 2:04 p.m.