ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who played a leading role in recent years as House Democrats twice impeached then-President Donald Trump and investigated Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, announced Friday that he will not run for the U.S. Senate seat that is opening with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin.

What You Need To Know

  • Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin is retiring, leaving an open Senate seat

  • Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin had been considering a run for the Senate seat but on Friday said he would seek reelection to the House

  • Raskin in April said that he had finished chemotherapy for lymphoma and that his cancer was in remission

Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee who is in his fourth term, had been weighing a run for the rarely open Senate seat but said in a statement that he would instead seek reelection in the House.

“At this moment, I believe the best way for me to make the greatest difference in American politics in 2024 and beyond is this: to run for reelection to the House of Representatives in Maryland’s extraordinary 8th District,” Raskin said.

Raskin said in the statement that “if these were normal times, I am pretty sure that this is what I would be announcing now.”

“But these are not normal times and we are still in the fight of our lives for democratic institutions, freedom and basic social progress in America as well as human rights and opportunity for people all over the world,” Raskin said.

Raskin, 60, announced in April that he had completed chemotherapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with a 90% prognosis of no relapse and that his cancer was in remission. It was the second time Raskin had been diagnosed with cancer. He battled colorectal cancer in 2010.

So far, Rep. David Trone and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks have announced candidacies for the Democratic primary for the Senate seat. Montgomery County council member Will Jawando also is running.