Loudermilk’s announcement sets up a new political contest for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District as he prepares to leave the House rather than run again. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Republican said he wanted to shift his focus to family life and framed his congressional service as “a service, not a career.”
Loudermilk represents Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, located northwest of Atlanta. The district includes all of Bartow, Gordon and Pickens counties and parts of Cherokee and Cobb counties, according to the Associated Press report. The Cook Political Report ranks it as the fifth-most strongly Republican of the nine congressional districts held by the GOP in Georgia.
Before entering Congress, Loudermilk served in the Air Force. He then chaired the Bartow County Republican Party and went on to serve six years in the Georgia state House of Representatives and two years in the Georgia state Senate, the Associated Press said.
Loudermilk has also been involved in efforts around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot investigations. The House Jan. 6 committee examined allegations that he gave a tour of parts of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, and suggested some tour participants may have been examining security measures; Loudermilk denied wrongdoing, calling it a “smear campaign.”
After Republicans took control of the House, Loudermilk led a subcommittee that released a report alleging that former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney acted improperly on the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee and calling for her to be investigated for criminal witness tampering. He currently leads another subcommittee charged with further investigating Jan. 6, the report said.
Loudermilk’s departure adds to a broader wave of Republican exits from the House going into the 2026 cycle. The Associated Press report said so far, 50 incumbents are stepping down or running for other office, and that four Republican-held congressional seats in Georgia will change hands this year.
In addition to Loudermilk, the AP report said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from her seat in January, setting up a March special election. It also said U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins are both running for the GOP’s U.S. Senate nomination, aiming to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
As Georgia’s federal map reshapes, parties will be forced to recalibrate their candidate recruiting and campaign strategies for multiple statewide and district-level contests. For voters in Loudermilk’s district, the decision means deciding this election cycle without the incumbent at the top of the ticket.